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.
But the filmmakers behind “The Dynasty: New England Patriots,” 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’s 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.
In an opening montage for the behind-the-scenes look into the rise and fall of the Patriots, Brady’s voice cracks and he appears to hold back tears while reminiscing on his New England career, which had a tense ending.
“The Dynasty” largely focuses on the Patriots’ inner power dynamics and the team’s football mystique — Brady unleashes a comical, profanity-laced defense of a favorable but controversial play in 2002 — but the series devotes three of its 10 episodes to darker moments. Those include the murder conviction of Aaron Hernandez and league punishments for spying on an opponent and playing with deflated footballs. (Hernandez killed himself in prison in 2017.)
“I can’t overstate how impressed I was with the honesty that people demonstrated with really difficult content,” said Jeff Benedict, who wrote a book about the Patriots before pitching the docuseries. “Some of the things that we were asking people to talk about were not pleasant.”
The Patriots were one of the league’s most tight-lipped teams under Belichick, who left the organization last month after a 4-13 season. His weekly news conferences often consisted of short, unrevealing answers; the team’s “Do Your Job” mantra referred to both on-field assignments and limiting distractions.
Devin McCourty, a former Patriots defensive back and three-time Super Bowl champion, said that Belichick’s intent was to focus on football. “It 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,” he said in an interview.
After drafting Brady in the sixth round in 2000, the Patriots made 13 conference championship games and nine Super Bowls. But as Brady’s stardom grew, he clashed with Belichick’s draconian coaching style, forcing Kraft to play mediator. In the documentary, Kraft describes a 2018 meeting with Brady and the supermodel Gisele Bündchen, who was then Brady’s wife, in which she complained about how Belichick treated her husband.
Brady ultimately left the team via free agency in 2020. He went on to win a record seventh Super Bowl with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since his departure, the Patriots have recorded one winning season.
“People always ask, ‘Why did it end?’” Benedict said. “The question I’m asking is, ‘How did it last so long?’”
There have been other Patriots-related projects from NFL Films, the league’s entertainment arm, and Religion of Sports, Brady’s production company. But Apple, which drew from more than 40,000 hours of archival footage, strove to distinguish “The Dynasty” through its level of access.
In addition to interviews with players like Rob Gronkowski, Randy Moss and Tedy Bruschi, the filmmakers spoke with members of Brady’s family (although not Bündchen), law enforcement, celebrities, journalists and Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner.
NFL Films was affiliated with the docuseries but had no editorial control — notable because the league is making an aggressive push to create content for streaming platforms. In many ways, “The Dynasty” is the football version of “The Last Dance,” the docuseries about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls that reached millions of viewers on ESPN and Netflix in 2020.
NFL Films declined to comment.
“I think everybody wanted to have a voice, let’s just put it that way,” said Brian Grazer, an executive producer of the series and a founder of Imagine Documentaries. He added, “You had to work with and balance a lot of personalities.”
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.
While a camera crew for “The Dynasty” was filming during a barbecue at Kraft’s house, Kraft said that McCourty would make a good interview. McCourty said his conversation lasted about six hours across two sessions.
Kraft, Brady and Belichick’s public comments are always calculated, and McCourty said he understood why they participated in the project.
“I think everyone realizes when you’re a part of something like that, the way for it to last forever is to do something like this and to talk about it,” McCourty said.
In true Patriots fashion, Kraft and Brady declined to comment. A representative for Belichick did not respond to a request for comment.
