As Monday rolled on for a New England Patriots franchise that has been going about its business in an oddly unfamiliar and empty January, there was a layer of palpable anxiety for some inside the franchise. And it had everything to do with President Donald Trump.
More to the point, it had everything to do with Trump and the team’s head coach, Bill Belichick — and the looming unknown of how the greatest coach in NFL history would respond to an invitation to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.