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All in all, despite the Hall snub, Belichick quietly restored his image and reminded all that he’s one of the greatest coaches of all time.

Which begs this question: Why would Belichick support his 24-year-old girlfriend wearing an Orchids of Asia T-shirt to the Duke-North Carolina men’s basketball game?

The shot fired from Chapel Hill on the eve of the Super Bowl did Belichick’s image no favors and eroded some of the pro-Bill sentiment of Super Bowl LX.

BILL BELICHICK‘S GIRLFRIEND JORDON HUDSON WAS WEARING A SHIRT TAUNTING #PATRIOTS OWNER ROBERT KRAFT.

Hudson was wearing a T-shirt from Orchids of Asia Day Spa, which was the massage parlor tied to Robert Kraft’s prostitution bust in 2019.

This is wild 💀 pic.twitter.com/4CF4o3GZkj

— MLFootball (@MLFootball) February 8, 2026

This was nothing less than a declaration of war on the Krafts. It almost guarantees that the Belichick-Kraft feud will never end, and creates a world in which it’s impossible to imagine Belichick ever being inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame.

One has to believe Belichick is now dead to the Krafts. Forget about a statue. By the time Jonathan Kraft is through, Bill’s name might be purged from Gillette altogether, Kremlin-style.

We know the history. The coach and the owner enjoyed unprecedented success in their quarter-century together. They won 17 division titles, and went to 13 AFC Championship games and nine Super Bowls, winning six.

Their partnership grew frosty through the years, and got nasty at the end, especially after Tom Brady left. Sides were taken. Camps were aligned. Who should get the most credit for the success? Or the most blame for the failures at the finish? There was subtle sniping from both sides. Kraft put together a self-aggrandizing documentary, “The Dynasty,” in which it seemed that the Patriots’ success was accomplished without a head coach. Belichick said he felt unwelcome in Foxborough and barred Patriots personnel from UNC’s football activities. The two traded verbal jabs around a Kraft interview in which the owner said he took a “big risk” initially hiring Belichick, who had failed as head coach of the Browns.

Sincere or not, Kraft did a better job taking the high road. After Brady’s statue was dedicated last August, Kraft told WBZ-TV, “When Bill’s coaching career ends, we look forward to sitting down with him and having a statue made to be right next to Tommy.”

Similarly, after Belichick’s Hall snub — which was revealed one week before Kraft was denied — Kraft issued a glowing statement on his former coach, acknowledging their differences, then saying, “He is the greatest coach of all time and he unequivocally deserves to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.”

That was 10 days before Jordon Hudson paraded around the nationally televised Duke-UNC basketball game wearing a T-shirt that’s an homage to Kraft’s most embarrassing moment. (In 2019 Kraft was charged with soliciting prostitution after a visit to the establishment. Charges were later dropped.) On the eve of Kraft’s return to the Super Bowl.

This feels unrecoverable. After Kraft dies, or hands the Patriots over to his family, the team will be run by Jonathan Kraft, who loathes Belichick with the power of a thousand suns. It’s hard to imagine the Krafts taking the high road any longer.

Despite this year’s curious votes, both will likely end up in the Pro Football Hall, possibly together in the summer of 2027. That’ll be the biggest bowl of awkward ever.

⋅ Quiz: 1. Name the last three men to coach the Seahawks before Super Bowl champion, Boston-born, Mike Macdonald; 2. Name four active NBA players who have averaged 30 points in a season three or more times (answers below).

⋅ There was no local TV crew on hand for the Red Sox’ first week of spring training. Can’t remember that ever happening. Loud statement.

⋅ Craig Breslow conceded there might not be a 20-homer guy on the 2026 Red Sox. Sorry, but this just can’t happen. I grew up in a sorry Sox era when the team annually finished in eighth or ninth place in the American League. But we always had home run hitters. Dick Stuart’s 42 bombs in 1963 almost made up for a 76-85 won-loss record. Tony C. was the American League home run champ two years later, when he hit 32 for the ninth-place, 62-100 Sox. Bet Roman Anthony has more than 20 by the end of August this year.

⋅ When the boss of the no-star Sox was challenged about having a roster with maybe no future Hall of Famers, Breslow countered, saying, “It’d be really premature to say that there aren’t Hall of Famers on our roster right now, right? I think that’s exactly why our fans can get excited, because we’ve got young cornerstone pieces, whether we think about Roman and Garrett [Crochet], you know, and many others. I think there’s a group of position players and pitchers that are going to be here for a long time that fans can kind of attach themselves to and watch them develop. And I think that for the most part, the best years of players’ careers are still in front of them. So if there’s this really exciting, young athletic core that’s going to be a part of championship contender.”

⋅ New Red Sox infielder Caleb Durbin looks a little like Christian Vázquez.

⋅ Drake Maye should be fine moving forward. He’s only 23, has great character, and is unlikely to be damaged by his Super Bowl disaster. It wasn’t the same for 1986 Patriots quarterback Tony Eason, who was never again a full-time starter after the 46-10 debacle against the Bears. Eason played five more seasons but registered only 16 starts for the rest of his career.

⋅ One of my favorite Super Bowl week vignettes was seeing Malcolm Butler sitting at the bar of the Globe’s San Francisco hotel headquarters, watching a rerun of the February 2015 Super Bowl between the Patriots and Seahawks, a.k.a. The Malcolm Butler Game. Malcolm got up and left the bar before the video got to Pete Carroll making the dumbest play call in sports history. As always, the Globe’s Stan Grossfeld got the money shot of Malcolm watching Malcolm.

Malcolm Butler, the hero of Super Bowl XLIX, watched a replay of the game at a San Francisco hotel bar during this past Super Bowl week.Stan Grossfeld/ Globe Staff

⋅ Another Super Bowl moment: Walking down to legendary San Francisco steak house “John’s Grill” (est. 1908) and seeing a casually dressed man throwing passes to friends in the middle of Ellis Street in the middle of the day, I couldn’t help but notice that the football was flying a very long distance — stuff of Doug Flutie-Hail Mary lore. Suspecting this was not a college kid fresh from the quad, I asked him his name: Matt Simms. son of Phil Simms. A former Tennessee and NFL quarterback.

⋅ Candlestick Park, former home of the Giants and 49ers, was demolished more than 10 years ago, but there’s still signage for Candlestick on Route 101, which connects the San Francisco airport to downtown. Maybe there should be directions to “Braves Field” on Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University.

⋅ New Pro Football Hall of Famer, ex-Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly becomes the third Boston College player to make it to Canton, joining Art Donovan and Ernie Stautner.

Former Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2026.Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

⋅ I have seen Budweiser’s “American Icons” Super Bowl commercial and (without seeing any of the others) declare it the winner. Skynyrd’s “Free Bird,” a Clydesdale, and a baby bald eagle get me every time.

⋅ When the Patriots played at shiny (opened 2014) Levi’s Stadium in 2016, I took a photo of an odd sign posted above a urinal in the press box men’s restroom. It reads, “Warning: Recycled water do not drink.” Nine years later, it’s still there.

⋅ Why do so many older, big-time men’s college basketball coaches dye their hair?

⋅ When the late David Stern brought the draft lottery to the NBA in 1985, he thought it would take care of the league’s tanking problem. Not so. The Tank-a-Palooza we’re seeing this winter should make the league blush.

⋅ Nine months after the breakup of the 2024-25 Celtics, Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis are together again with the Warriors.

⋅ Our president is threatening to block the opening of the $4.7 billion Gordie Howe International Bridge connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario. Would love to have seen The Donald drop the gloves with the late Red Wings legend.

The Gordie Howe International Bridge will connect Detroit and Windsor, Ontario.Sarah Rice/Getty

⋅ Why it’s always a good idea to scan the Irish Sports Pages (obituaries): Reading the New York Times obit for 83-year-old Chuck Negron, one of the lead singers of “Three Dog Night,” I learned that the guy who sang “Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog” was recruited to play basketball at California State College at Los Angeles by a head coach named Bill Sharman. That’s Hall of Famer Bill Sharman, Bob Cousy’s backcourtmate in the early years of the Bill Russell Celtics dynasty. After winning four titles with the Celtics, Sharman became an NBA coach, won another ring with the Lakers (33 straight wins in 1971-72), and invented game-day morning shootaround, the bane of existence for many NBA players.

⋅ RIP Geraldine “Jerre” Gowdy, 101-year-old wife of the late, great Curt Gowdy, who died in 2026 after 56 years of marriage. Mrs. Gowdy was a philanthropist and longtime supporter of the arts, medicine, and civic institutions in Boston and Palm Beach, Fla. The Gowdys are buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge.

⋅ Quiz answers: 1. Pete Carroll, Jim Mora Jr., Mike Holmgren; 2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (four times), Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden (three each).

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.