The world according to Jim:

• So what do most bowl games – and, to be honest, the NFL exhibition schedule – have in common with the final weekend of the league’s regular season?

Two words: Buyer beware. …

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• If you bought tickets for Chargers-Chiefs on Sunday at SoFi Stadium expecting to see Patrick Mahomes at quarterback for Kansas City, you’re getting Blaine Gabbert instead. If you’re hopping onto a flight to San Jose to see Rams-49ers at Levi’s Stadium on Sunday, you’re going to get a duel between Carson Wentz and Sam Darnold, instead of Matthew Stafford vs. San Francisco’s Brock Purdy.

Plus, if you’re a Rams fan, it’s likely there will be no Cooper Kupp, Aaron Donald, Kyren Williams or Ernest Jones, either, though they’re listed as doubtful on the injury report just in case “somebody was to get sick or something unforeseen happens” where they’d need to be activated to fill out the 48-man game day roster, Coach Sean McVay told reporters on Friday.

And the Rams actually have playoff seeding to play for. Doesn’t matter. …

• It’s not like teams haven’t rested their studs in meaningless season-closers before, but the risks were on display for all to see a year ago. Then-Chargers coach Brandon Staley played his regulars in the season finale at Denver, wide receiver Mike Williams hurt his back and was unavailable the next week against Jacksonville, and we saw the result. You think coaches and executives throughout the league didn’t pay attention? …

• Not everyone can afford such roster shenanigans this weekend, because there are still playoff spots and seedings up for grabs. But in those games where the result doesn’t matter, the price of the ticket will be devalued, the amount depending on how many stars sit out.

Consider: As of Friday morning, Seat Geek listed 280 tickets for Chargers-Chiefs at between $32 and $49, all upstairs on the 500 level. Ticketmaster and StubHub likewise listed similar resale inventories at similar prices. And while the secondary ticket market isn’t always a reliable indicator, the suspicion is those prices would have been much, much higher for a game that mattered and that had star power. …

• Hey, Staley’s getting blamed for everything else, right? …

• Of course, there are season finales and then there are season finales. The New England Patriots-New York Jets game on Sunday in Foxborough, Mass., will be dripping with emotion unusual for a game between 4-12 and 6-10 teams, specifically because this is expected to be Bill Belichick’s last game as Patriots coach.

In essence, it will be the official end of the last vestiges of the Patriots’ dynasty. The true conclusion was New England’s victory over the Rams in Super Bowl LIII five years ago in Atlanta, though that dreadful 13-3 slog hardly qualified as dynastic. …

• The last odds we saw for the next coach of the Chargers, courtesy of Bookies.com, had Jim Harbaugh slightly ahead of Belichick, with Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson next.

Memo to anyone foolish enough to put money on this proposition: Know your ownership. Always – always – bet on the assistant coach or coordinator who (a) will work cheap and (b) won’t demand too much power. …

• This showed up on the WebMD website a few months ago: “Is It Healthy to Be a Hardcore Sports Fan?”

The answer, in the first paragraph: “Studies have found that people who are sports fans have higher self-esteem compared to individuals with no interest in sports. Sports fans were also found to feel more fulfilled in life.”

So there. …

• Of course, there was no reference in that piece to dressing in costume to go to a game, which seems to have become a particular habit for some NFL fans. I’m not totally sure when that became universally popular, but I’m pretty sure we can credit – or blame – Raider fans. …

So do you ride to the stadium like this, or put it on in the parking lot? pic.twitter.com/ZCwiE35Qww

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 8, 2023

• Today’s exercise in reader participation (you supply the punch line): The XFL and USFL have decided to merge into one spring football league, the United Football League, to play this spring. …

• Or maybe this quote is the only punch line we need: Investor Gerry Cardinale told Front Office Sports that the new league has “a legitimate shot at becoming one of the top professional leagues in the country after the big four.”

One problem with that: If there really was an appetite for spring football in this country, we wouldn’t have had so many failed attempts at it. This likely will be another. …

• The NCAA’s eight-year deal with ESPN announced this week is worth $920 million for the women’s basketball championship plus 39 other championships, a 300% increase over the previous deal. That’s fine, and I suppose it’s necessary to bundle the other championship events, some of which might not get on TV any other way. But why do I have this feeling the association is still selling women’s hoops short? …

• Or maybe it’s because the contract for the men’s NCAA tournament, shared by CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery (parent company of Turner Broadcasting) and running through 2032, pays the NCAA $900 million per year. …

• This is a week late, true, but it’s worth revisiting. Three icons shared a birthday last Saturday: Sandy Koufax (88), Tiger Woods (48) and LeBron James (39). So shouldn’t Dec. 30 be a national holiday – GOATS Day – going forward?

jalexander@scng.com