With Celtics Eliminated, Are Patriots Best Chance For Next Boston Championship?

New England will enter training camp as a 22-1 longshot to win Super Bowl LVII.

With Thursday night's Game 6 loss to the Golden State Warriors at TD Garden, the Boston Celtics will have to wait to hang their 18th championship banner. Which begs the question, how close are the New England Patriots to hoisting their seventh Lombardi Trophy?

In 2018 both the Patriots and Boston Red Sox won titles, but since then Massachusetts has been in a - okay, we're admittedly greedy - sports drought. 

The Celtics haven't won a championship since the days of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2008. The Boston Bruins lost their first-round playoff series, fired coach Bruce Cassidy and haven't won the Stanley Cup since goalie Tim Thomas helped them break the 39-year drought in 2011. The Red Sox are above .500 but a gaudy 13.5 games behind the surging New York Yankees this season, making their '18 title fueled by Mookie Betts and Steve Pearce feel like a distant memory.

Are the Patriots in line to be the next Boston team to win a title?

The odds - and recent history - suggest otherwise. Since Tom Brady left, Bill Belichick's team is only 17-16 and hasn't as much as won a single playoff game. They sneaked into the postseason last year, only to be humiliated in a 40-point loss to the AFC East champion Buffalo Bills.

With promising second-year quarterback Mac Jones, highly drafted offensive rookies in Cole Strange and Tyquan Thornton and the return of defensive veterans such as Malcolm Butler and Devin McCourty, the Patriots figure to at the very least again be competitive in 2022.

However, they are not even favored in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins and are a 22-1 long-shot to win Super Bowl LVII February 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

As ultimately unfulfilling as the Celtics' run was, it may serve Boston fans well to embrace getting that close to a title. Because the next one isn't easily identifiable at this point.