Tom Brady and Bill Belichick are always fascinating talking points in NFL circles.
Was it Brady that made Belichick great or did the longtime New England Patriots coach get the most out of his 6th round QB to win 6 Super Bowls together?
On Friday, Apple is releasing a docuseries called “The Dynasty” that takes a deep dive into the dominant Patriots’ run. According to Chad Graff of The Athletic, it finally answers several questions fans have always wondered about the Brady/Belichick dynamic.
Here’s what Graff said about the new series:
On Friday, Apple TV+ is unveiling “The Dynasty,” a lengthy documentary with two episodes dropping every Friday for the next five weeks. It’s proclaimed to be a look at the Patriots between 2000 and 2020, and it covers Brady’s rise to prominence after Drew Bledsoe’s injury, how the Pats navigated three Super Bowls in four years, the controversies that followed and how a second dynasty grew before eventually tumbling amid fractured relationships. Those early episodes are worthwhile for Patriots fans who want to relive the early years of the dynasty. And the middle episodes are worthwhile for Patriots haters who want to revel in some new details about Spygate, Deflategate and the team’s other indiscretions.
He then explained how the Apple special takes a deep dive into the unique dynamic between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
But more than anything, the documentary feels like a referendum on how bad the Brady-Belichick relationship got and why it never had a storybook ending with the two riding off together into the sunset. Even though the interviews were conducted months before the Patriots split with Belichick, the subjects in it — including Brady, Belichick, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, NFLcommissioner Roger Goodell and nearly every well-known Patriots player over the last two decades (except, notably, Jerod Mayo) — speak openly about the all-encompassing, dictatorial style with which Belichick ran the Patriots.
ESPN made local headlines last month when a story following Belichick’s departure from the Patriots quoted someone referring to this forthcoming documentary as an “infomercial” for Kraft’s Pro Football Hall of Fame candidacy. This documentary, which The Athletic was allowed to screen for this review, is not that. It’s much more focused on the relationship between Brady and Belichick and, in totality, it’s the most comprehensive view yet of how miserable people in the building were in the final years of their dynasty. Or at least that’s the juiciest, most interesting part.
Tom Brady And Bill Belichick Relationship Was Insanely Toxic
The Athletic piece said Brady makes clear his departure had more to do with who was coaching the team than the amount of money he was offered.
Belichick didn’t offer the two-year, $50 million contract Brady wanted, one that would have given the legendary quarterback the stability he sought. For years, that has been viewed as the main reason Brady didn’t return to the Patriots
No amount of money would have kept him in New England under Belichick’s reign.
“Me and coach Belichick, we did what we loved and competed for 20 years together,” Tom Brady said. “But I wasn’t going to sign another contract (in New England) even if I wanted to play until (I was) 50. Based on how things had gone, I wasn’t going to sign up for more of it.”
Graff went on to say how Patriots players hated going to work under Bill Belichick during the dynasty run and noted the head coach was particularly harsh on Brady.
Players, including several still on the roster, disclose just how difficult it was playing for Belichick. “It was brutal,” Matthew Slater said. Rob Gronkowski described pulling up to 1 Patriot Place and not wanting to get out of his car to go into work. Wes Welker compared Brady to an abused dog for continually going back to work for Belichick.
This truly sounds like it’s going to be a riveting glimpse into the Brady/Belichick dynamic and reveal things we’ve never heard before.
The ending may not be enjoyable for Patriots fans. It leaves one with a feeling of what could’ve been had Belichick’s style been a bit different or had Brady been willing to deal with it a bit longer.
But on the whole, the documentary is gripping and a worthwhile watch, one that reveals how bad things had gotten with the Patriots before Brady’s departure.
As Kraft says, “Tom and I had a number of discussions about how Bill treated him. Tommy is very sensitive. He was always looking for Bill’s approval, almost in a father-son kind of way. And that’s not Bill’s style ever to give that.”