Given recent events, we cannot wait for this.
The New England Patriots’ era of dominance is officially over, rubber stamped by the confirmed departure of legendary head coach Bill Belichick.
Things were never really the same after GOAT quarterback Tom Brady departed Boston for Tampa Bay ahead of the 2021 season. But now that both Brady and Bill have walked away, there’s a feeling of finality about the Pats as we’ve known them since the turn of the millennium.
So what better time to reflect on the franchise’s lengthy period of success?
Tom Brady was drafted by the Patriots in 2000, being infamously written off from the jump as a mere sixth round pick, the same year Belichick took over as head coach. But New England would go on to enjoy unparalleled success over the two decades that followed, reaching nine Super Bowls and winning six of them. Not bad, considering the quarterback was taken 199th overall in the 2000 NFL Draft!
The National Football League has never seen anything else quite like New England’s run, particularly in modern times. And while it’s undisputed that both key figures, Brady and Belichick, played huge roles in the team’s success, fairly and accurately portioning the credit has been an impossible task.
But perhaps this Apple TV series may take us one step closer to that conclusion.
The Dynasty: New England Patriots documentary on Apple TV+
Official bio: Directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Matthew Hamachek (“Tiger”), “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” chronicles the rise and historic 20-year run of the Patriots during the Brady-Belichick-Kraft era. The docuseries is based on the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestselling book of the same title by author Jeff Benedict, and goes deeper, drawing on thousands of hours of never-before-seen video footage and audio files from the Patriots organization’s archive. In addition to interviews with past and present Patriots players, coaches and executives, the unparalleled access includes Kraft, Belichick, Brady, and confessionals from league officials and the archrivals of this dominant sports dynasty.
As Apple’s press release highlights, ‘The new 10-part series from Imagine Documentaries and Emmy-winning filmmaker Matthew Hamachek features unprecedented access to the New England Patriots and is based on the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling book by author Jeff Benedict.’
When is The Dynasty released on Apple TV?
February 16, 2024
The Dynasty will be available to stream as of mid-February. Whether it’s a coincidence or not, that’s four days after the Super Bowl, which is taking place in Las Vegas.
The Dynasty trailer
The official trailer is available to check out and it carefully reveals enough to get us proper invested.
One grab, specifically, from former Wide Receiver Danny Amendola, was of particular note; “We worked for Bill, but we played for Tom.” Spicy.
Who features in the documentary?
Who knows exactly how much Apple TV have forked out making this docco, but all the big names feature as key contributors; Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and, importantly, New England owner Robert Kraft, who has also been a key part of the story right the way through.
As mentioned, receiver Danny Amendola is also involved, plus former players Randy Moss, Deion Branch and Michael Strahan, plus former veteran Boston Globe journalist Jackie MacMullan, who later joined ESPN and was a staple of sports coverage in Massachusetts for decades.
What else will we see?
It’s obvious the docco will comprehensively detail New England’s unrivalled dominance through the 2000’s and 2010’s, but there is so much more to the story.
It isn’t all smooth sailing, even for sports teams that have as much success as the Pats did. Winning papers over cracks, but you can be sure there were plenty of cracks. On top of internal inertia, New England got themselves tangled up in multiple controversies, that were major news stories at the time; SpyGate and DeflateGate to name a couple.
So just as the headline of this piece suggests, get set for some explosive revelations. This thing is going to be must-watch territory.
