No one could ever accuse Dan Shaughnessy of using kid gloves when dealing with the Krafts
DAN SHAUGHNESSY
"Why the Patriots docuseries ‘The Dynasty’ is a farce, and other thoughts
By Dan Shaughnessy Boston Globe Staff March 23, 2024
Picked-up pieces after heart surgery …
It was not my intention to return to these pages this soon, and I am far from 100 percent, but some things cannot wait. I remember ripping tubes out of my arms after sinus surgery when I got the word that the Red Sox had finally fired crusty manager John McNamara on Bastille Day in 1988. I’d been waiting three long seasons for that moment and was not about to let another Globe scribe Knife the Mac on the day the Sox made the long-overdue sacking.
Which brings us to … “The Dynasty,” the entertaining yet loathsome 10-part Kraft hagiography/Belichick hit piece that dropped its final two episodes on Apple TV last weekend.
The Globe’s estimable Ben Volin has already given great voice to the preposterousness and unfairness of the series, but my dark, healing heart would not allow this moment to pass without joining the chorus of “Dynasty” detractors.
Bottom line: As Patriots/NFL history goes, “The Dynasty” is a farce.
It’s great to have so much locker room footage, and the Apple folks give us a lot of credible and interesting voices. Hearing Rob Gronkowski tell his truth and Tom Brady drop F-bombs is new and enlightening. Free of Big Bad Bill, Devin McCourty, Matthew Slater, Ty Law, Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Willie McGinest, and Danny Amendola are worthy truth-tellers. It’s great to hear so much from Ernie Adams.
But make no mistake: This is Bob Kraft’s authorized history of the Patriots. Nothing less.
It all goes back to Jeff Benedict’s 2020 book, “The Dynasty.” Benedict is a legit journalist who wrote 16 books prior to this one. I called him in October of 2020 to express my disappointment with what I considered the one-sidedness of this work. We had a cordial conversation and he responded formally with a short statement defending the book’s fairness. Swell. Kraft’s response to the book’s fairness was to send it out to Patriots season ticket-holders as a party favor.
Benedict worked with Apple as a producer and is credited as the writer of the series. He has emerged as commander-in-chief of the Patriots media cartel and certainly qualifies to be a ceremonial lighthouse bell-ringer for a 2024 Gillette game. As Volin pointed out, the final credit of every episode reads, “Copyright Kraft Dynasty LLC 2024.”
Got that? Not the Patriot Dynasty. Not the Brady Dynasty. Certainly not the Belichick Dynasty. It’s the “Kraft Dynasty,” and don’t you forget it.
In this series, Kraft emerges as the inventor and savior of the Patriots, a benevolent owner who always tries to do the right thing and the man who held the whole thing together while Evil Bill and wonderful “Tommy” grew apart.
We see nothing of Kraft’s 1998 deal to move the team to Hartford, and don’t wait underwater for any reference to Orchids of Asia. Bob and Jonathan are the hero of every story (did you know that it was Jon who ordered Bill to get rid of Aaron Hernandez?), a father and son who somehow won despite a needy quarterback named Tommy and a petty, overrated meany coach named Belichick.
Bill Belichick is ripped by his players for his love letter to Donald Trump on the eve of the 2016 election, but there’s no mention of Kraft’s $1 million donation to the Trump inaugural fund. And did we really need Rupert Murdoch’s homage to Bob, which practically put RKK on a par with Jonas Salk?
I didn’t.
In his ceaseless effort to paint himself as a good guy, Kraft actually acknowledges that he said this to Hernandez when the tight end was accused of murdering Odin Lloyd: “I said, ‘Aaron, tell me, did you do this? Because if you did, I know you must have had some good reason. I’m going to get you the best defense lawyer we can get.’ ”
There you go. The Patriot Way.
Recalling the Belichick-Brady breakup, Kraft recounts Tom and Gisele Bundchen coming to Kraft’s house and Gisele complaining, ”That [expletive] Belichick, he doesn’t treat my Tommy like a man.”
The humanity!
Now that Belichick is gone, the gloves are off, and everything is Bill’s fault. Referencing New England’s loss to the Eagles in Super Bowl LII, Kraft says, “I credited Bill with that loss.” The owner acknowledges that he ultimately chose Belichick over Brady in 2020, but we aren’t supposed to blame him for the breakup.
I also found it interesting that while the carefully Krafted “Dynasty” was being made available — and after 20 years of photo ops and press releases (much of it promoted by Kraft’s partners at WBZ-TV/CBS Boston polishing the image of how great the Patriots treat their players and how much Patriots players love playing here) — the NFL Players Association released results of a 1,706-player poll that revealed that New England ranks near the bottom in overall player satisfaction regarding treatment by the club. The Patriots finished 29th of 32 and got an “F-” for treatment of players’ families. There’s nothing about that in “The Dynasty.”
Ownership has its privileges. Drew Bledsoe, Bill Parcells, Tommy Brady, and Bill Belichick are all gone. Now we just have the Krafts and a 4-13 team starting over. Bob gets to keep campaigning for a gold jacket in Canton (Ohio), and Jonathan gets to be the invisible general manager with all the power and none of the accountability.
Let’s see how they do on their own, free of all the Hall of Fame bums they broomed out of here."
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