Joe Judge’s Patriots Sweatshirts Have Proven Sadly Prophetic

Joe Judge meant well. He really did.

But in the end, the sweatshirts he recently had made for Patriots players were pretty cringe. Worse yet, they proved prophetic for all the wrong reasons.

For the unaware, players were given new sweatshirts, designed by Judge, four days before New England’s Week 4 road game against the Dallas Cowboys. The grey hoodies featured the classic Pat Patriot logo on the front, and the phrase “No one is coming; it’s up to us” on the back.

The apparent message: There is no football god coming to save us; we alone must turn this season around. To be fair, it’s a fine — if corny — sentiment.

But there also was a more cynical interpretation for a heavily scrutinized 1-2 football team: We’re actually in need of saving, and there’s no help on the way. In other words: Our situation might be hopeless.

Talk about a deviation from “We’re still here.”

(For what it’s worth, a day after the sweatshirts debuted, one Patriots player said he’d never turn down a free hoodie before adding, “I don’t like the backs.”)

Well, the Patriots have been outscored 72-3 since the arrival of the sweatshirts. In consecutive weeks, they suffered the most lopsided loss of Bill Belichick’s career and the worst home shutout loss in franchise history. The franchise now is in a situation where its head coach and franchise quarterback might be facing one last chance.

Ironically, someone actually might be coming, just not in time.

At 1-4, the Patriots are tied with six other teams for the second-worst record in the NFL. But due to strength-of-schedule tiebreakers, they’d hold the No. 5 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft if the season ended today.

Even if they don’t finish with the worst record, they could be in striking distance of the first overall pick. Caleb Williams, anyone?

In fairness, it’s not like players have boycotted Judge’s sweatshirts or anything. Some players were wearing them inside the locker room Tuesday afternoon.

But it’s also clear they didn’t land — even though they were kinda right.