Don Shula and members of the 1972 Dolphins have been outspoken in their hopes that the Patriots don’t join them as the only unbeaten teams in NFL history.

The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

FOXBORO — Sports writers covering the Patriots need only 24 letters of the alphabet.

They have no use for X’s and O’s.

That’s because, when writing about the Pats, it’s never about football.

Which, considering that they’re the best team in football, is really weird.

But, as coach Bill Belichick likes to say: “It is what it is.” And, when it comes to the Patriots, what always seems to be of primary interest is something other than the “X’s and O’s” of the game at hand.

Last week, before the Pittsburgh game, was all about the Steelers’ outspoken safety, Anthony Smith, and what, not surprisingly, proved to be his worthless “guarantee” of a Pittsburgh victory.

No one was interested in hearing about what Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger might do against New England’s seemingly suspect (following unimpressive, back-to-back, subpar performances against the Eagles and Ravens) defense, nor how much the Pittsburgh defense was likely to miss hard-hitting safety Troy Polamalu. Instead, everyone wanted to hear about Smith’s ridiculous ravings.

This week has been all about Spygate, and the soured relationship between Belichick and his former protÉgÉ, Jets coach Eric Mangini, who dropped a dime on his mentor by tipping off NFL security to the Patriots’ illegal use of a sideline video camera to tape the Jets’ defensive signals during the season opener at the Meadowlands.

What’s the story with New York’s young QB, Kellen Clemens, who has taken over from Chad Pennington? Who cares? That only has relevance to what may happen during the game. Much more important, it seems, is whether Belichick and Mangini will shake hands after the game.

The craziness will continue next week, when the story line will be all about the (presumably) undefeated Patriots taking on the (almost certainly) winless Dolphins.

It’s not often that, in the next-to-last week of the season, the NFL and Fox television would decide to make the national, late-afternoon telecast what appears to be a hugely one-sided mismatch between what is clearly the best team in the NFL and what is obviously the worst — a blowout of a game that the Patriots figure to win by at least four touchdowns.

In this case, though, it’s not the game that’s the attraction — it’s the story line. If the Dolphins, as expected, lose, they’ll become the first team in NFL history to go 0-15. The irony there is that it was the 1972 Dolphins, coached by Hall of Famer Don Shula, who are the only NFL team ever to finish a season undefeated, going 17-0, capped by a 14-7 victory over the Redskins in Super Bowl VII.

It is that legacy that the Patriots are chasing; that significant piece of pro football history New England is attempting to share.

They’ll also be trying to stick it to Shula — who, in the aftermath of Spygate, made derogatory remarks about Belichick — and to all those ’72 Dolphins, who pop champagne corks every year after the NFL’s last unbeaten team goes down in defeat.

As to whether Cleo Lemon or rookie John Beck starts at QB for Miami next Sunday, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of each – who cares?

Everybody knows the Pats are going to squish the Fish. What we want to know is what Shula will say afterward.

After which, the Patriots will head to Giants Stadium for the season finale, presumably one game away from racking up a perfect 16-0 record.

In order to do that, they’ll have to keep New York’s fearsome pass rushers — Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan, and Justin Tuck — away from record-setting QB Tom Brady.

Not that you’re likely to hear much about that.

All the talk that week will almost certainly center, not on how the Patriots might manage to finish undefeated, but whether they will finish undefeated.

It will be, as it has been virtually all season, all about style, and very little about substance.

It’s sports as soap opera.

Which should hardly be surprising, given that the evening news now more closely resembles Entertainment Tonight than Walter Cronkite.

It’s why sports writers covering the Patriots use only 24 letters of the alphabet. They have no need for X’s and O’s.

jdonalds@projo.com