The New England Patriots were one loss away from securing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
While the fans wanted the Patriots to not beat the Buffalo Bills at home to close out the regular season, the players wearing New England colors had other designs on the game.
“I feel like if you go into a game explicitly trying to lose, that’s a locker room killer more than anything else,” defensive end Keion White told reporters after the Patriots 23-16 victory, per team-provided transcript. “If we were trying to lose or we weren’t putting ourselves in the best position to win, then I feel like some of the guys would feel that, and we would be even more like, oh whatever, checked out.