\n<\/p>\n
The New England Patriots, a modern N.F.L. juggernaut with six Super Bowl wins and two cheating scandals, are the perfect subject for a docuseries. They are also one of the most secretive franchises in professional sports.<\/p>\n
But the filmmakers behind \u201cThe Dynasty: New England Patriots,\u201d<\/a> an Apple TV+ docuseries premiering on Friday, convinced more than 25 players, coaches and executives to open up on camera. Among those interviewed are Robert Kraft, the team\u2019s longtime owner; Bill Belichick, who has the most playoff wins of any N.F.L. coach; and Tom Brady, a three-time league M.V.P. who is widely considered the greatest quarterback ever.<\/p>\n In an opening montage for the behind-the-scenes look into the rise and fall of the Patriots, Brady\u2019s voice cracks and he appears to hold back tears while reminiscing on his New England career, which had a tense ending.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Dynasty\u201d largely focuses on the Patriots\u2019 inner power dynamics and the team\u2019s football mystique \u2014 Brady unleashes a comical, profanity-laced defense of a favorable but controversial play<\/a> in 2002 \u2014 but the series devotes three of its 10 episodes to darker moments. Those include the murder conviction of Aaron Hernandez<\/a> and league punishments for spying on an opponent<\/a> and playing with deflated footballs<\/a>. (Hernandez killed himself in prison<\/a> in 2017.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI can\u2019t overstate how impressed I was with the honesty that people demonstrated with really difficult content,\u201d said Jeff Benedict, who wrote a book about the Patriots<\/a> before pitching the docuseries. \u201cSome of the things that we were asking people to talk about were not pleasant.\u201d<\/p>\n The Patriots were one of the league\u2019s most tight-lipped teams under Belichick, who left the organization last month<\/a> after a 4-13 season. His weekly news conferences often consisted of short, unrevealing answers; the team\u2019s \u201cDo Your Job\u201d mantra referred to both on-field assignments and limiting distractions<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Devin McCourty, a former Patriots defensive back and three-time Super Bowl champion, said that Belichick\u2019s intent was to focus on football. \u201cIt was always just the thought of if you say the wrong thing, you never knew how Bill was going to crush you in meetings the next day,\u201d he said in an interview.<\/p>\n After drafting Brady in the sixth round in 2000, the Patriots made 13 conference championship games and nine Super Bowls. But as Brady\u2019s stardom grew, he clashed with Belichick\u2019s draconian coaching style, forcing Kraft to play mediator. In the documentary, Kraft describes a 2018 meeting with Brady and the supermodel Gisele B\u00fcndchen<\/a>, who was then Brady\u2019s wife, in which she complained about how Belichick treated her husband.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Brady ultimately left the team via free agency in 2020. He went on to win a record seventh Super Bowl<\/a> with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since his departure, the Patriots have recorded one winning season.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople always ask, \u2018Why did it end?\u2019\u201d Benedict said. \u201cThe question I\u2019m asking is, \u2018How did it last so long?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n There have been other Patriots-related projects from NFL Films<\/a>, the league\u2019s entertainment arm, and Religion of Sports<\/a>, Brady\u2019s production company. But Apple, which drew from more than 40,000 hours of archival footage, strove to distinguish \u201cThe Dynasty\u201d through its level of access.<\/p>\n In addition to interviews with players like Rob Gronkowski, Randy Moss and Tedy Bruschi, the filmmakers spoke with members of Brady\u2019s family (although not B\u00fcndchen), law enforcement, celebrities, journalists and Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner.<\/p>\n NFL Films was affiliated with the docuseries but had no editorial control \u2014 notable because the league is making an aggressive push<\/a> to create content for streaming platforms. In many ways, \u201cThe Dynasty\u201d is the football version of \u201cThe Last Dance,\u201d<\/a> the docuseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls that reached millions of viewers on ESPN and Netflix in 2020.<\/p>\n NFL Films declined to comment.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everybody wanted to have a voice, let\u2019s just put it that way,\u201d said Brian Grazer, an executive producer of the series and a founder of Imagine Entertainment<\/a>. He added, \u201cYou had to work with and balance a lot of personalities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Benedict, who has written books about violence by collegiate and professional athletes, started his project on the Patriots by writing a letter to Kraft in 2018. The owner responded six months later, eventually granting Benedict access to the organization. The relationships he forged with Kraft and other team insiders when he was writing his book on the Patriots helped propel the on-camera interviews.<\/p>\n While a camera crew for \u201cThe Dynasty\u201d was filming during a barbecue at Kraft\u2019s house, Kraft said that McCourty would make a good interview. McCourty said his conversation lasted about six hours across two sessions.<\/p>\n Kraft, Brady and Belichick\u2019s public comments are always calculated, and McCourty said he understood why they participated in the project.<\/p>\n \u201cI think everyone realizes when you\u2019re a part of something like that, the way for it to last forever is to do something like this and to talk about it,\u201d McCourty said.<\/p>\n In true Patriots fashion, Kraft and Brady declined to comment. A representative for Belichick did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n