Put a (D) next to a bologna and cheese sandwich and it would beat a Republican running for Senate in Massachusetts.

A Republican winning there is as far-fetched an idea as finding Jimmy Hoffa alive in Eagle Pass, Texas. It’s like riding the space shuttle to Mars. It’s like watching the New Orleans Saints and the New York Jets playing against one another in the Super Bowl.

Impossible.

Ninety years of combined futility, sans Joe Namath 41 years and 12 days ago today, have defined two professional football franchises known more for brown bag-clad fans and cries of wait ’til next year — on the third day of preseason.

Never in the 43-year history of the Saints have they hosted a conference championship. The NFL has played six Super Bowls in the Superdome, with little fear of the occupants of that building playing a “home” game in the Super Bowl.

The team’s first signee of its existence was a kicker. They have had colorful players and coaches, rabid fans who are as used to losing as Republicans in Massachusetts and a sense of doom and gloom no matter how good things are going.

Now the team that had the best record in the NFC will play one of the most beloved quarterbacks ever — also a lifetime Saints fan — in Brett Favre. Las Vegas oddsmakers have the Saints as a 3.5-point favorite, but make no mistake the Saints are underdogs.

No doubt exists for what team Vegas likes in the first game as the Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts are an 8-point favorite of the team that shouldn’t even be there. What an ironic twist that the Jets, a team that has played in three conference championships and hasn’t celebrated a Super Bowl since Lyndon Baines Johnson sat in the White House, would be playing the team directly responsible for their even being in the playoffs.

In Week 16, the Colts held a lead on the Jets in the third quarter. The starters were pulled. The Jets came back, won the game, won the following week and made the playoffs. Had the Colts won, the Jets would be dusting off the golf clubs.

The stars are aligning. Nearly 30 years after the United States hockey team defeated the mighty Soviet Union in the greatest of all upsets, sports fans are on the precipice of two more.

The Jets and the Saints in the Super Bowl.

Preposterous.

Yeah, and a Republican will win a Senate seat in Massachusetts.