The Dynasty docuseries from Apple TV+ chronicling the New England Patriots’ championship run through the 2000s and 2010s has received rave reviews, just not from many of the people involved.
Robert Kraft recently expressed “disappointment” with the way the docuseries highlighted controversies while various ex-New England Patriots have said they felt “duped” given what made it into the show and what didn’t.
Now, former Patriots stars Julian Edelman and Matthew Slater have voiced some displeasure over the docuseries’ portrayal of legendary head coach Bill Belichick. The two former Patriots, who won multiple Super Bowls in New England, discussed the docuseries and criticism on Edelman’s Games with Names podcast.
Their stance on Belichick’s portrayal followed a similar line to Kraft’s: It wasn’t positive enough.
“I honestly think if you’re in your 30s and you’ve played football, I don’t think you’ve ever liked your football coach. You loved him. But you didn’t like your football coach. Just like I didn’t like my parents when they made me do things that they knew was gonna make me a better person,” Edelman said via NBC Sports Boston.
Slater’s comments carried a similar tune.
“I know there are some comments that I made on there that made it seem like Bill was just this very demanding presence — and he was. But I also want people to see that there are multiple sides of Bill. And it’s tough because I feel like he’s being portrayed in a certain light,” Slater said. “And we’re painting a picture, but we’re only showing people part of the picture. With Coach, it’s very complex. And there are things that, you know, were tough, and I’m sure we were all feel like, ‘Hey, maybe we wish we had done things this way.’ But let’s make sure none of us forget the fact that the dynasty is not even being talked about without Bill Belichick.”
Slater emphasized that he felt Belichick’s demanding presence “got the best” out of the Patriots annually.
Once again, this feels like a situation where crowing about negativity misses the point. You have to tell the entire story, and after a twenty-year run at the top of the NFL, plenty of people had enough ammunition to despise the Patriots, just as they had enough to rummage through to wax poetically about them.
It’s hard to imagine that a “glowingly positive” Patriots documentary would have been well-received. While Edelman, Slater, Kraft, Rodney Harrison, and Devin McCourty have all taken turns to ding up the documentary series, their admonishments might make people want to watch it. There’s a litany of Patriot haters (and Boston sports haters) out there who are likely intrigued by what they’ve been saying about it.
About Chris Novak
Chris Novak has been talking and writing about sports ever since he can remember. Previously, Novak wrote for and managed sites in the SB Nation network for nearly a decade from 2013-2022