"The Dynasty" lays foundation for Belichick-Brady divorce in 28-3 comeback episode
BOSTON -- A story is not much of a story without conflict. We all learned that back in high school. If your story lacks conflict of any kind, what you've written is a boring tale that won't interest many -- if any -- people.
So when it comes to the 10-part docuseries "The Dynasty," it's more than understandable that the dissolution of the relationship between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick -- two of the greatest and most successful people at their positions, a duo that wrote NFL history for two decades -- is explored in great detail. While all of that winning certainly required the overcoming of plenty of conflict and challenges, the really interesting part of the whole story for many viewers will be found in the details of how and why it all came to an end.
That is to say that a heavy focus on the end of the dynasty was an expectation, if not a prerequisite, for "The Dynasty" to be a worthwhile program.
Yet even with that being understood, the efforts to lay the foundation for the Brady-Belichick divorce were a bit much in the eighth episode, titled, "Score To Settle," which debuted on Apple TV+ on Friday.
This is the episode dedicated in part to capturing Brady's mindset as he returned from his four-game Deflategate suspension with revenge on his mind. It culminates with Brady leading the Patriots back from the dead in their 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl LI. In and of itself, the story of the 2016 season provided no shortage of drama and conflict, beginning with the team having to play without Brady for the first four games of the year. Brady returned in Week 5 facing persistent national accusations of being a cheater while also trying to navigate playing quarterback in the NFL at the age of 39. And then, of course, there is the historic Super Bowl comeback itself, providing the cap to what was arguably the greatest season of Brady's career.
This episode, though, went heavy on the fraying relationship between Brady and Belichick, perhaps missing the point that at this time, it was all still working.
Let's explore some of the details and more memorable moments from the 40-minute episode.
--Right off the bat, the episode opens with the tension that arose in Foxboro after Belichick drafted Jimmy Garoppolo in the second round of the 2014 draft. Belichick's press conference comment about "Tom's age and contract situation" showed up right away, and the impact of this draft selection (when Brady was entering his age 37 season) was covered.
"I think Bill thought Tommy was starting to lose it," Robert Kraft said. "I remember Bill used to show me different statistics, Tommy's throws over 20 yards were ranked the lowest in the league. And Bill said we have to be ready to move on."
(As an aside, if Belichick was showing those stats to Kraft after the Aaron Dobson/Kenbrell Thompkins/Josh Boyce season in 2013, then that's some trick.)
While this series has been criticized for being a vehicle for the Krafts to reshape history in a way that pins blame on Belichick for certain things ... this has been the story all along. Kraft trusted Belichick with the decision on Brady, and Belichick had obviously drafted Garoppolo so that he could plan for the end of Brady.
"I think after that Jimmy Garoppolo draft, the tension between Bill and Tom increased," Kraft said. "I think it was a turning point in their overall relationship dynamic."
And with that, the mood of the episode has been established.
--Tom Brady somewhat happily explained that 2016 was an "FEA year." As in?
"F--- 'em all, baby," Brady smiled. "Said that for a long time. They're not pulling for us anyways."
Brady ended up going 11-1 with 28 touchdowns and just two interceptions in his 12 games that year, finishing second in MVP voting despite missing those first four games. FEA Brady was a frightful prospect.
--That being said, even Brady allowed doubts to creep in. After he threw a pick-six to Robert Alford in the Super Bowl, he allowed some of those thoughts to enter his headspace.
"I threw an interception returned for a touchdown in a Super Bowl. That's f------ as bad a play as you can make," Brady recalled. "You know, when that happens, it just goes into your mind, like f--- man, if we lose this game, that's all they're gonna wanna talk about it -- you know, me being washed up."
--One other moment showed Brady's raw emotion from that season. After the Patriots beat the Broncos in Denver to clinch the AFC East and drop the Broncos to 8-6, Brady is seen in the locker room happily saying, "F------ a--holes. End these f------ a--hole's season."
--Though not directly from Brady's mouth, a secondhand account of Brady's thought process about Garoppolo in 2016 was relayed by reporter Tom Curran. "I remember clearly having someone very close to Brady say, 'When he returns from his suspension, Tom will destroy him,'" Curran said.
Brady didn't have to, as it turned out. Garoppolo was great in his six quarters of work during Brady's suspension, but he suffered a shoulder injury in Week 2 and was replaced by rookie Jacoby Brissett. That part of the story didn't make it into the episode.
--Max Kellerman's proclamation that Tom Brady was going to "fall off a cliff" and "be a bum in short order" made it into the episode. A classic moment in Patriots history.
--The episode included some high-quality shots of Brady during his time at Michigan, including him on the sideline wearing a headset and looking like the little brother who wasn't allowed to play with the big kids. The whole Drew Henson-Tom Brady-Lloyd Carr dynamic plays out in the episode, which certainly feels like ancient history at this point.
--Danny Amendola on Tom Brady's return from suspension in Week 5 at Cleveland: "You could tell he was f------ angry. And we're like, the king is back. Here he goes. Watch him f------ get pissed off and go."
That quote is delivered with Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" playing as a backing track. The Swiftaholics will note that it's the new "Taylor's Version" that hasn't been released yet. If you can tell the difference between that and the original version then, well, you win the prize of nothing.
--Everybody knows that Belichick was just as harsh -- if not harsher -- with Brady during team film sessions as he was with anyone else. Brady's willingness to accept that tough coaching in front of everyone was a significant part of establishing and maintaining the culture of the Patriots. It's also explored deeply in this episode.
"Do I think Tom felt disrespected? Yeah, I think so," longtime special teams captain Matthew Slater said. "I don't think I would want to be treated differently, but I would expect a certain level of respect, especially as a grown man. But what that does for Tom Brady, that's gonna add fire to an already-burning inferno."
Wes Welker, who left the team outside of Belichick's good graces in 2013 after a six-year stint in New England, tried to tell Brady that the setup was not good.
"I personally talked to Tom," Welker shared, "and was like, 'You're a … basically, you're an abused dog. You sit there, tail between your legs, and you just keep on coming back.'"
And Robert Kraft offered his view of the relationship: "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 it's not Bill's style ever to give that."
--True to form, all these years later, Belichick's praise of Brady for the Super Bowl LI performance was a bit ... understated. "Well I think Tom's performance, like everybody else's, is related to other things besides him," Belichick said in the episode. "But there's not many guys who could do what Tom Brady did, especially at that point in his career."
That was in regard to Brady setting just about every Super Bowl record while leading that comeback from 28-3. So yes, a bit muted.
--At the same time, this coaching strategy WORKED. This particular episode frames so much of it in a negative light, but this episode also captured the peak of the second wave of the Patriots' dynasty. Say what you will about it eventually running its course, but Belichick's method of operating the franchise was unquestionably effective at this point in time.
Take this for example: After a 34-16 home victory over the Texans in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs, Belichick was not pleased. He had good reason, too. The Patriots turned the ball over three times, they punted six times, and if they hadn't been facing Brock Osweiler, they could have lost their entire season because of their own sloppy play. As you'd expect, Belichick didn't mince words when addressing the team in the postgame locker room.
"All right men, I'm just telling you now, we're gonna have to play a lot better than that next time we play," a less-than-enthusiastic Belichick told the team. "We'll meet at 1 o'clock on Tuesday, and then we'll watch this game, which, you know, there are gonna be some things that aren't f------ great. Giving the ball like it's going out of style, missing tackles, can't block a three-man rush. All right, fortunately, we made enough plays to win, but I'm just telling you it won't last. It will not last."
Camera shots of stone faces surrounding Belichick accompany that clip, presenting a doom-and-gloom type of atmosphere. Which may have been the case, but again ... it was working. So few teams and coaches would ever look at a playoff win in such a negative light, and that's largely what fueled the Patriots to so much winning over the years.
"It just seemed like at times with Belichick, I felt like we lost a game even though we won," Slater recalled. "It was brutal!"
--Consider this a complaint: This series features far too much Donte Stallworth. His interview is used in this episode, which marks at least his third episode in the show. Stallworth played 17 games for the Patriots (16 in 2007, one in 2012), and while his commentary is useful, he's just not a part of the dynasty the way that "The Dynasty" might have you believe.
In this episode, Stallworth says that Belichick said, "I could get Johnny F------ Foxboro from down the street to make a better throw than this" while critiquing Brady in a film session. That tale has been told many times over by many different people over the years.
Randy Moss, Slater and Welker also recalled their initial shock at seeing how hard Belichick criticized Brady during some of those film sessions. With the dramatic music playing in the background, this is presented in a rather intense way. And again, for as jarring as some of these tactics were, they worked.
--Scott Pioli had the best quote regarding Super Bowl LI. At this point, he was the assistant general manager of the Falcons. And while so many of his colleagues and cohorts were hooting and hollering when the Falcons took that 28-3 lead, Pioli knew better than to celebrate too early.
"When we were up 28-3, I'm watching the game, we had a suite for the entire personnel department. All the folks I'm working with, they're high-fiving, everyone -- it's out of control," Pioli said. "But I was a mess. I felt this nervousness. And as I'm sitting there, someone slaps me on the back and says, 'Come on, Scott, lighten up! You've gotta enjoy this moment.' And I just erupted. And I whipped around and I said, 'You effing people don't get it. That guy number 12 across the field is Freddy effing Krueger. He's coming back, and he's gonna get a bunch of us. I just hope he doesn't get us all.'"
Spoiler alert: He got them all.
--Julian Edelman explains his famous fingertip catch in detail: "We started driving. I was pretty confident Tom was gonna come my way. But I rushed my route, I didn't run a good route. And I look over my shoulder, I just remember the DB's eyes and I see him looking at the ball and I'm like, 'Ah, s---. Interception. We're gonna f------ lose this Super Bowl.' The fate of the team is in that play's hands. Everything happened so fast, it's all reaction. I tell you right now, I had to check my pants after that play. Because that could've been the game."
--As far as game coverage goes, the NFL Films footage used for this Super Bowl is the most extensive yet in this series. That's to be expected. The greatest comeback in Super Bowl history deserves that type of coverage.
"You don't think you're gonna lose a game when you're up 28-3. But unfortunately for those guys, they had to find out when you're playing against Tom Brady, in front of national TV, with millions watching, that the game ain't over until the game's over," Slater said.
--Belichick shouting "I LOVE YOU GUYS!" to Brady and LeGarrette Blount in the postgame hysteria was about as emotional as we've ever seen the coach get. Between that one and his "We're champs!" refrain after Super Bowl LIII, he really savored those late championships.
--Roger Goodell congratulated Brady behind the on-field stage after the game, saying, "All the best, man. Unbelievable." A tremendously genuine message from the very-normal commissioner of the National Football League.
"Finally, I felt like there was some closure to the saga," Brady said of ... all that he had experienced over the previous two years. "We made our point. And I could not start chasing what I set out to chase. I think I was chasing what I deemed to be my potential. I said I was going to play until my mid-40s. So let me just go to work and let my play do the talking."
--The episode ends with intense music and slow-motion shots of Brady and Belichick, setting up their eventual split. Again, we know how it ended, and we know what's coming next. But the Lombardi Trophy-shaped confetti is literally falling in front of Belichick and Brady as Howard Bryant talks about their inevitable "collision."
That is to say, while the incredible comeback from the 28-3 deficit is captured quite well in this episode, the series leaves no room for celebration and doesn't focus on what this win meant for everyone involved and for NFL history. It's merely the appetizer to the main event of this series, which is the eventual split between Brady and Belichick ... which didn't happen for three more seasons after this historic event.