Things I am thinking about while the bagel toasts and the coffee brews.

So the Patriots will play at Pittsburgh next Thursday night. It has, in the past, been a game that would have easily shown up in the CBS 4:25 p.m. doubleheader window or the Sunday night NBC broadcast.

How the mighty have fallen.

This year's game will be seen on Amazon Prime and local stations in Boston and Pittsburgh. Nowhere else.

It wasn't all that long ago that those Tom Brady vs. Ben Roethlisberger matchups were must see TV. They were a highlight of any network's regular season.

For those of us who come down on the other side of that "rivalry," the games haven't always been fun to watch. The games have, however, always been fascinating.

Now the game has been relegated to streaming.

And, to add insult to injury, the Amazon graphics plugging the game feature the Steelers' T.J. Watt and Patriots coach Bill Belichick. 

Belichick? Really? Amazon couldn't find one player on the current New England roster to feature? Instead, the graphic features a coach who — depending on who you read or what sports talk shows you listen to — has either lost his fastball or is a lame duck.

This Patriots-Steelers game demonstrates one of two kinds of sports rivalries.

One rivalry is like Michigan-Ohio State or Williams-Amherst in football, Red Sox-Yankees in baseball or Celtics-Sixers in basketball. In those rivalries, it doesn't matter if one team is good and the other stinks, if both of them are really good or if both of them are horrible. The fan bases of those teams care a great deal about the outcome of the game.

The Patriots-Steelers rivalry falls into the latter category, where two teams are rivals because they are both good. 

I can guarantee you that a lot of football fans in Pittsburgh don't have the Patriots on their radar screens. With equal certainty, were the records reversed, nobody in Patriots Nation would give two hoots about the guys in black and gold.

It was like when Peyton Manning was the quarterback in Indianapolis and Patriots fans hated the Colts with the white hot passion of a thousand suns. You know that if Indy showed up at Gillette Stadium this weekend, it would be just another football game.

Give me Patriots-Jets, Giants-Eagles or Steelers-Ravens intensity rather than what currently passes between Pittsburgh and New England.

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When UMass and UConn played football last weekend, there was more of a buzz around McGuirk Alumni Stadium than had been present for most home games this year.

You see, because UMass-UConn is more like Red Sox-Yankees than it is Patriots-Steelers. That is probably more true among the fan bases than it is among the players and the coaches.

The unfortunate part of this rivalry is that the animus is strictly one way. Nobody in Connecticut cares that much about UMass when it comes to football and to most sports. Hockey might be the only exception.

That is because UConn is only a year removed from playing in a bowl game and only a few months away from winning a Division I basketball championship.

This game should be a contest that is circled on everyone's calendar from when the schedules come out until the game is played.

Both teams, however, need to improve their talent levels for this game to get "juice."

I'm looking forward to when that happens.

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So, the MIAA football state championship games wrapped up Friday night at Gillette Stadium.

Which leads to the question, if they hold a state championship and no teams from our area is playing, does it make a sound?

This marked the second consecutive season that no Berkshire team made it to Foxborough.

The last time a local team, and its cast of sportswriters, made it to Route 1 was in 2021. That year, Cohasset beat Wahconah 27-12, with the Skippers scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter to lock up that victory.

The key player for Cohasset was quarterback Will Baker. All Baker did was run for 124 yards on 23 carries and scored two touchdowns. He also completed 4-of-9 passes for 82 yards and a touchdown.

And yes, that is the same Will Baker who played in five games as a tight end at Williams. 

So, this week did feel kind of empty that there wasn't a Berkshire team heading for the Big Razor.

The best part of Super Bowl week was something that doesn't happen anymore. The captains' breakfast.

The MIAA and the Krafts invited every championship contending team to Gillette for an early-week breakfast. The captains and coaches would hear from a former Patriot like Drew Bledsoe or Andre Tippett. Then the captains would tour the stadium, and have a media day on the turf.

The looks on the players' faces when they were at the 50 yard line was something most memorable. 

There was no captains' breakfast this year, probably because games were played over three days instead of one Saturday.

Maybe next year, the Krafts and the MIAA will agree to restoring the breakfast. Maybe next year, the Eagle sports staff will travel en masse to Gillette to watch someone finally bring home a state football crown.

Howard Herman can be reached at  hherman@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6253.