Why didn't Bill Belichick talk about Patriots' upset win during 40-minute Pat McAfee appearance?

Given the many media jobs he took in the offseason, it seemed inevitable that we would get to hear Bill Belichick talk about this year’s Patriots.

But after the Jerod Mayo era began with a 16-10 upset win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, Belichick’s thoughts on the victory are nowhere to be found.

In a near-40-minute appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Monday, Belichick wasn’t asked one question about the big win his former team pulled off in the season opener.

Rich Keefe and Adam Jones came up with some theories on how Belichick was able to avoid discussing the Patriots Tuesday on WEEI. Listen to the full segment above.

“So the question would be two things,” Keefe said. “One, did McAfee somehow decide not to ask him a Patriots question? Or did Bill Belichick go on and say, ‘Hey, no Pats questions this week?’” Keefe said.

“Bingo,” Jones said.

Jones and Keefe noted that one of McAfee’s producers, Boston Connor, is a big Boston sports fan and asks questions about Boston’s teams all the time. Why didn’t he chime in with Belichick on Monday?

“They ask Boston-centric questions in, like, every interview because of Boston Connor,” Jones said.

Jones theorized that McAfee is taking a softball approach to his Belichick interviews to maintain his relationship with a high-profile guest.

“It's the same stuff that used to go on with Jim Gray and Tom Brady in his weekly interview, the ‘Hey, this is off limits,’ ‘We're not going to ask about this,’ ‘Don't ask me about that,’ ‘Here's what I want to talk about,’” Jones said.

It’s been a startling 180-degree turn for Belichick, who had an, at best, icy relationship with the media during his time as coach, to becoming the Ryan Seacrest of professional football. Jones theorizes that it’s all to keep the coach in the spotlight for his attempt at a comeback next season.

“It's about Bill collecting a check and what helps Bill Belichick, that's it,” Jones said.

“And so coming in, talking about how the Patriots don't miss Bill, how the team's ready to run through a wall for the new guy, how they won and got more out of Bill's players than Bill could last year, none of that makes him look good. None of that helps Bill. None of that helps his image. None of that gets him rehired.”

Keefe put the scenario into other teams with a different Hall of Fame-caliber coach.

“Let's say Andy Reid got fired by the Chiefs after like one bad season or two bad seasons, and then he's doing eight media jobs and Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, whatever, they grind out a win the next week. You're not asking Andy Reid about the Chiefs? Of course you are,” Keefe said.

Jones wondered what would happen if the Patriots got blown out in their Week 4 matchup against San Francisco.

“When they get slammed by the Niners, it’s the whole interview. It's gonna be 10 minutes out of the 40 minutes talking about the Patriots. You know that's gonna happen. And that will be proof that it's fraudulent and it's not a real interview,” Jones said.

“And Bill is complicit in what is asked and what's not asked, again, because Bill's not doing real analysis. Bill’s there to help his image, rehab his image and get another job.”