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Bill Belichick calls ‘The Dynasty’ docuseries a ‘roast’
This is far from the first time that Belichick has taken shots at the Apple TV+ docuseries “The Dynasty."
“The Dynasty” — the Apple TV+ docuseries that chronicled the Patriots’ two-decade run — was not exactly warmly received by Patriots fans.
Beyond the limited focus on New England’s first three Super Bowl titles, the negative slant doled out against Bill Belichick drew criticism from both fans and former players alike — especially given Belichick’s key role in orchestrating the greatest dynasty in NFL history.
“Bill was a hell of a coach,” Rodney Harrison said of the series omitting several positive aspects of Belichick’s 24-year run in Foxborough. “They act like the last three or four years, because the Patriots struggled, that Bill can’t coach.
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“You give me one game and you give me Bill’s Xs and Os, I’ll take him over anybody. . . I just didn’t like the way that he was made out. . . . I just don’t think he got enough credit, enough respect, enough props. Man, this dude is the greatest coach of all time.”
In a far-from-shocking development, Belichick himself was not exactly a fan of the 10-part series, either.
“You and Tom Brady having that meeting weekly is kinda like, legendary,” Pat McAfee told Belichick during the ex-Patriots coach’s weekly appearance on his ESPN show. “There are shots from Do You Job I, Do You Job II, Do You Job III, I don’t know how many of those documentaries we have.”
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“The other documentary as you remember is a roast, I wouldn’t count that one,” Belichick responded, in a clear reference to “The Dynasty”.
This is far from the first time that Belichick has taken shots at the series. During his appearance on Tom Brady’s Netflix roast in May, Belichick opened with a joke about the Patriots documentary.
“It’s an honor to be for The Roast of Tom Brady on Netflix,” Belichick said near the start of his appearance on the special. “It’s not to be confused with the roast of Bill Belichick during the 10-part Apple TV series.”
Harrison was one of many ex-Patriots to vouch for Belichick once the documentary was released, with Devin McCourty admitting that he felt “duped” after just one short segment from his hours-long interview for the series was used.
“I watched and I was just like, man, only things I said that could come across as negative to Bill was the only thing [used],” McCourty said.
“Like, I mean, I had different kind of quick sentences on things, but the longest thing I talked about was 2016 with Trump and the letter [Belichick sent in support of his candidacy for president]. And I thought that was probably the worst part. That everything that we all gave to the 20 years that it encompassed, they only hit anything that was negative.”
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Belichick’s negative portrayal in “The Dynasty” has reportedly hurt Robert Kraft’s candidacy for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, according to ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr.
“Both projects depicted Kraft deftly managing the egos of two all-time greats, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, to keep the hit-making band together as long as possible,” Van Natta wrote. “Some voters told ESPN they believe both projects were intended to juice Kraft’s Hall of Fame candidacy.
“A Patriots spokesperson adamantly denied the projects were part of any push to get Kraft into Canton. And last winter, Kraft said he had no influence on the docuseries and was “disappointed” with the film.”
Despite Kraft’s comments, Van Natta wrote in his story — citing documents obtained by ESPN — that the Patriots owner holds both the film and television rights to “The Dynasty” book penned by author Jeff Benedict.
“That means the book by acclaimed author Jeff Benedict could be turned into a film only with Kraft’s permission. And according to emails, documents and sources, Kraft owns the docuseries, licensed it to Apple and sought editorial control,” Van Natta wrote.
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