Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and ”The Dynasty” Docuseries

Starting point is 00:00:00 Had the relationship between New England Patriots legends Tom Brady and Bill Belichick deteriorated to a level of toxicity capable of destroying a dynasty? Stick around, you're about to be locked in to this dynasty episode of the Locked On Patriots Podcast. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Remember, Locked On Patriots is not only a proud part

Starting point is 00:00:54 of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day, but we are also free and available on all platforms, so make sure to download, subscribe, and follow wherever you get your podcasts, and of course, smash that subscribe button on YouTube. I'm your host, Mike DeBate, and I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. So reach out to me and let me know what's on your mind on X at MDABATENFL. And while you're out there showing some social media love to Locked On Patriots,

Starting point is 00:01:22 please be sure to follow our account there as well at LO underscore Patriots. And Pats fans, don't forget that today's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. Right now, new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet. That's $150 if your bet wins. Visit FanDuel.com slash slash locked on to get started. And Pats fans, we are less than two nights away from the premiere of The Dynasty, a 10-part docuseries based on the critically acclaimed New York Times bestselling book by author

Starting point is 00:01:59 Jeff Benedict. And Pats fans, if you're a longtime everydayer of Locked On Patriots you might remember that Jeff joined us here on the pod back in 2020 when his book The Dynasty was released I personally cannot recommend the read highly enough I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy if you haven't already truly one of the most comprehensive pieces on the New England Patriots you'll find anywhere but this docuseries premiering on Friday night is going to take an even deeper dive. It's produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Documentaries.

Starting point is 00:02:31 And yeah, there's a lot of Hollywood clout behind these guys. You know Ron Howard's work from movies like The Da Vinci Code, Apollo 13. Brian Grazer was heavily involved in the production of one of my favorite TV shows of all time, 24.

Starting point is 00:02:43 So yeah, this is a big time production. And not only are Imagine Documentaries going to play a large role, but this was also made in association with NFL Films. And it's directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Matthew Hamachek. And that's a name you're going to be hearing a lot of over the course of the next few days in Patriots Nation. Matthew has been making a number of media appearances, and he selected Locked On Patriots as one of his first stops. So we are honored to have him here, and I know that you're

Starting point is 00:03:10 going to be intrigued to hear exactly what he has to say when it comes to the New England Patriots and this upcoming docuseries, The Dynasty. And again, this is one you are not going to want to miss. Matthew was granted unprecedented access to the Patriots organization, and Jeff Benedict was as well. He spent two years chronicling an historic 20-year run of one of the most successful franchises in professional sports. As I said to open the show, Jeff's work is one of my favorite. I think it's one of the most complete. I think, in my humble opinion, the most accurate of anything you'll see written on the inner workings of the Patriots dynasty but again this docu-series takes an even deeper dive into the Patriots inner sanctum we're talking thousands of hours of never before seen video footage and audio files from the organization's archive these filmmakers were also given access to the team during the 2021 season

Starting point is 00:04:02 and they conducted interviews with past and present Patriots players, coaches, executives. Yeah, folks, you see what I'm getting at here. You know you're going to hear from Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski. You're even going to hear from the birthday boy who turned 52 today, a tip of the cap to Drew Bledsoe. But you're also going to hear from league officials, and folks, you're even going to hear from some arch rivals of your favorite team in Foxborough, arguably the most dominant sports dynasty of the 21st century. And folks, each part of this series is going to have

Starting point is 00:04:35 you on the edge of your seat. You're going to relive the glory days. It's going to give you the feels without any question. But I know you're clamoring for additional details, things that you haven't heard before. Trust me on this one. You're going to get it, including some details of some of the more controversial moments in Patriots history, because as the great Eric Bischoff once said, controversy creates cash. But stick around after my interview with Matt today, because there is a lot already being said about the deterioration of the relationship between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Trust me folks, you are not gonna wanna miss this. But first, I can't do this docuseries any more justice than the man who directed it. And in

Starting point is 00:05:16 just a moment, the director of the dynasty, Matthew Hamachek, is gonna join us right here in the Locked On Patriots studios. All that and more when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues, a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Locked On listeners, get buckets with your first bet on FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook, because right now new customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 bet that's 150 bucks if your bet wins basketball season is in full swing and with FanDuel you can make cheering on your favorite green team in the hub more enjoyable more exciting

Starting point is 00:06:02 and maybe even a little more profitable. Bet on all of your favorite NBA players and teams with quick bets, live same-game parlays, exclusive props, and more. Just visit Fanduel.com slash locked on and shoot your shot. That's Fanduel.com slash locked on. Fanduel, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. Patriots fans, my guest today is an Emmy-nominated director known for his amazing work on docu-series and productions such as HBO's Tiger in 2021, Chronicling Tiger Woods, Cartel Land in 2015, and Netflix's Amanda Knox documentary in 2016.

Starting point is 00:06:45 His meticulous work on this series, The Dynasty, provides us all in Patriots Nation a look inside the New England Patriots like you've never seen before. And take it from me, someone who's covered the team for a good long while, it is not easy to make it into the inner sanctum in New England. And this gentleman right here was able to do it and is about to present to all of us here in Patriots Nation one amazing story. It is my honor to welcome Matthew Hamachek today to Locked on Patriots. Matt telling the Patriots two plus decades story of success with all the highs all the lows mixed in more highs than lows that makes Patriots fans happy to say that, especially considering the state of the team right now.

Starting point is 00:07:29 I think it's something that you've done masterfully here in conjunction with Jeff's book. What was your experience working on this project, not just in terms of the research and the development, but also in terms of working with the Patriots organization, which is notorious for holding things very close to the vest. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I didn't grow up a Patriots fan. I had my own team, so I really didn't know all that much about this story to begin with.

Starting point is 00:07:58 And so what I sort of thought was, OK, well, there's a chance that I'm going to get to talk to a lot of people who have never really spoken on the record before. And for the diehard Patriot fans out there, I'm thinking of people like Ernie Adams, who, you know, is sort of this mystical figure, so to speak. And he was one of the first people I reached out to. And to his credit, he gave me, I think, 15 hours of interviews. And also Scott Pioli, who was the director of player personnel, who, again, is a person who in a lot of ways, yes, he's on TV and he's sort of a media personality, but he hasn't really been on the record about the patriots very much um and so here's a situation where i'm going to have access to not only those guys but also to tom if we can you know if he's willing bill if he's willing all of these people 70 plus players coaches executives uh executives, league officials, rivals. And when you get that,

Starting point is 00:09:07 when you get the people that are actually in the room, it's a process of listening to them really and letting them sort of say, this is what it was like during this moment, whether it was the 2001 season, whether it was Spygate, whether it was the Flategate, whether it was the 2001 season, whether it was Spygate, whether it was the Flategate, whether it was the dynasty sort of coming to an end and falling apart. It was a process of listening to these people that were in the rooms and then also going through,

Starting point is 00:09:36 I don't know, 35,000 hours of archival footage, a lot of which had never been seen before and using, pairing those things together and being able to tell a story that I think whether you're the most diehard of diehard Patriot fans, who's read every single book that's ever been made and watched all of the three games to glory. I think that's what they're called. And, um, you know, all of the NFL film stuff that's been put out there, you're going to find new revelations in this series that you didn't know about before.

Starting point is 00:10:12 But I also think that if you're not a Patriots diehard fan, that you're going to be able to watch this and find a deeply human story that sort of transcends football and New England. Yeah, without any question. And I'm so glad that you mentioned that because many who will be seeing this work, Matt, for better or for worse, are going to do so to learn more about the dynamic of the big three, for lack of a better term. It was a dynamic relationship, but it was also a complicated relationship at times. And that is the success that the Patriots had because of Bill Belichick,

Starting point is 00:10:46 Robert Kraft, and Tom Brady, all kind of coming together at the right time, at the right place for Patriots fans and really the region across New England. I'm not going to ask you to give away anything, but I'm going to ask you if there were certain things about the trio, especially coming in with your background, not having known much about the New England Patriots, that surprised you about the personal bonds especially coming in with your background, not having known much about the New England Patriots, that surprised you about the personal bonds, the personal dynamic between Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady? And are these things that may surprise even Patriots

Starting point is 00:11:15 Nation? I think, yeah, of course. I mean, for me personally, it was a fascinating thing to sort of see these guys when they came together for the first time in 01, well, I guess really in 2000, but really starting the story in 01, they were all kind of outsiders at that point, right? You know, Robert Kraft wasn't the typical NFL owner who just, you know, cut a check from his multi-billion dollar fortune and sort of viewed the team as a toy he had to leverage a lot to get there and how he got there is fascinating for Bill Belichick yes obviously he'd been an incredible talent as a defensive coordinator with the Giants but then as a head coach in Cleveland you know Jackie Mack sort of says it was an underwhelming stint there

Starting point is 00:12:02 and so he had a lot to prove at the point when Robert decided to hire him as a head coach. And then, you know, everybody knows the Tom Brady 199th pick story, you know, what he went through at Michigan, all that kind of stuff. So they started out that way. And the culture that they created, I think, in a lot of ways, fostered a selflessness, right? And that, when you talk to these guys that were there, whether it's Bruschi or Ty Law or Lawyer Malloy or Adam Vinatieri, they talk about how that selflessness and, you know, not having a superstar really let everybody feel like they had an ownership stake in the team and what was happening. And so I think we know about that part of the story a little bit if you're a diehard, diehard Patriots fan.

Starting point is 00:12:49 What you don't know necessarily about and you haven't seen before is things like Ted Nugent, who is, you know, Tom Brady's roommate, his his rookie in the 2001 season. And when he came and interviewed for us, he said, hey, I've got this really interesting footage of Tom and me living in this condo that Tom bought from Thai law. Would that be of any interest to you? And then we said, well, of course. And when we started looking at it, it was just, you know, we were finding, you know, buried treasure, basically, because we got to see what Tom looked and talked like before the rings before the GQ cover stories, you know, all of that stuff. And so and then again, it's like, once we get past the three Super Bowls in four years, you know, you get into you you get into Spygate and as every Patriot fan knows, really all you ever got out of Bill or anybody on the team when that happened was, you know,

Starting point is 00:13:53 all I'm focused on right now is the Chargers. That was the, that was the refrain after that first Jets game in, in, in 2007. And what we were able to do is to find footage of Bill addressing this in the locker room and talking to the people about that. But then also having people who were there talk about what it felt like for Bill to have, you know, you know, have Eric basic Eric Mangini, who is a former part of the team, sort of in some people's in the media's words like rat, you, like rat him out to the league and all of that. And so again, we get back to this very deeply human story about Bill going through that, how the team handled it. And we just keep going through the story like that through things like Aaron Hernandez,

Starting point is 00:14:44 which again, the team really has never talked about before. Any of the people involved in the team, I really haven't talked about before you get to hear what it was like and how much they cared about Aaron. And also you can see in their eyes how much it affected them. And similarly with the flake gate. And then eventually, you know, really getting to go in depth on stories like Malcolm Butler, not only making me one of the most incredible interceptions in, you know,

Starting point is 00:15:13 in NFL history, but also the burning question of why he wasn't playing in the Eagle Super Bowl. And so we get into all that and we get into the end of the story. But I think in the end, you really sit back and marvel at how they sustained this for so long, despite all of those complex relationships and the fact that they won six in those 20 years, despite everything that was going on, is just as remarkable as it is to cover

Starting point is 00:15:49 all of those so-called scandals. Absolutely, Matt, an excellent insight. And definitely, I know Patriots Nation is going to be excited to watch this. It's ironic that Jeff's book kind of coincided with the end of the Tom Brady era in New England. And this docuseries now coincided with the end of the Tom Brady era in New England, and this docuseries now coinciding with the end of the Bill Belichick era in New England. Very quickly, any parting words to Patriots Nation in terms of this essentially

Starting point is 00:16:15 acting as maybe the final act in the Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, Robert Kraft triumvirate era in New England? Well, I don't know about that. I think that that might be coincidence as much as anything else. But I do think that when you watch this, I think you will be able to have great insight into what really went on towards the end and why this thing came to an end. And I think that anybody who says, well, my theory is this, my theory is that, I think you're going to be able to hear it from the mouths of the people who are actually there. So instead of sort of there being off the record anonymous sources for an article or, you know, whatever, it's like, well, now you get to listen to what Tom Brady says

Starting point is 00:17:01 really happened and what Bill Belichick says really happened, what Robert Kraft says really happened. And also what the other, you know, 60, 70 plus people who were there watching this thing unfold really says happened. So it's, it's it was a really incredible story for me to be able to witness and learn about firsthand and can't wait for Patriot Nation to, to watch it and hear it for themselves for the first time. Again, and we thank you for that

Starting point is 00:17:30 and for putting this together and for giving us that opportunity to get this information directly from the sources that were involved. Matt, thank you for taking the time out today. My best of luck to you. My congratulations to you already on what I know is going to be a successful series.

Starting point is 00:17:44 And thank you for taking time out to speak with us here at Lockdown Patriots today. Thank you so much for having me. Lockdown listeners, passion, drive, and patience is what brings home that winning trophy. You know what? It's also what keeps your ride or die alive. Our good friends over at eBay Motors have everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. From superchargers to roof racks to exhaust kits, LED headlights, and so much more.

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Starting point is 00:19:02 hamachek for giving us an inside look at his gripping documentary, The Dynasty. And the time for the talk has just about ended. It's almost time to watch. And you guessed it, some of the sinister details are starting to circulate. And some fortunate members of the media, myself included, have been granted an early look at the series. And from what I've seen, you're going to really be captivated by this one. It is riveting. And again, a lot of media outlets are going to be offering reviews and one of the first reviews to come out on this documentary is from the athletic and specifically they're

Starting point is 00:19:35 targeting the relationship between the game's greatest quarterback and the game's greatest head coach and folks while the tension between both, meaning Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, is no secret, let's face it, it really hasn't been a secret since Brady's departure in March of 2020, the degree of animosity between the two may come as a surprise to even the most diehard Patriots fan. And folks, it came

Starting point is 00:19:58 as a little bit of a surprise to me too, and the reason being is that this is not based on the words of second, third, and fourth-hand sources. It actually came from Brady himself. And if Tom is to be taken at his word, and folks, I have no reason why Tom shouldn't be taken at his word, it appears that his desire to part with Bill Belichick was indeed the ultimate coup de grace when it came to the end of this dynasty. The end of the Patriots' reign of dominance in the NFL came because Tom Brady just wanted to

Starting point is 00:20:25 change the scenery and here's a look at what Tom had to say and I'm reading verbatim now from the Athletics Chad Graff's transcription of Tom Brady's words and I quote me and coach Belichick we did what we loved and competed for 20 years together but I wasn't going to sign another contract in New England even if I wanted to play until I was 50 based on how things had gone I wasn't going to sign another contract in New England even if I wanted to play until I was 50 based on how things had gone I wasn't going to sign up for more of it you know to paraphrase Daniel Caffey I don't know what he means by that but it doesn't really sound good definitely lead you to believe that there was a lot of tension and that Brady simply needed a break from Foxborough and specifically needed a break from Belichick himself. Well, Chad's review goes on and now I'm quoting Chad directly here by saying, quote, players, including several still on

Starting point is 00:21:11 the roster, disclosed just how difficult it was playing for Belichick. Rob Gronkowski described pulling up to one Patriots place and not wanting to get out of his car to go to work. Wes Welker compared Brady to an abused dog for continually going back to work for Belichick. Yeah, folks, again, I'll come back to a few good men. Looks like a lot of members of the Patriots weren't really happy down there in Shangri-La at the end of the dynasty. And believe it or not, we're not done yet because the Athletics Review also details the role of team owner Robert Kraft in all this.

Starting point is 00:21:43 Yeah, Kraft is portrayed as kind of the intermediary toward the end of the owner Robert Kraft in all this. Yeah, Kraft is portrayed as kind of the intermediary toward the end of the road, especially in 2019, which was Brady's last season in New England. And Robert Kraft's comments, again, do not paint a very glowing picture of life in New England at that point. Kraft was quoted as saying, Tom and I had a number of discussions

Starting point is 00:22:01 about how Bill Belichick treated him. Tommy is very sensitive. He was always looking for Bill's approval, almost in a father-son kind of way. And that's not Bill's style ever to give that. And these comments are kind of ironic because don't forget, Robert Kraft himself experienced his own irreconcilable differences with Belichick just back in January that resulted in that mutual and amicable parting of the ways. But keep in mind that that parting between Belichick and Kraft happened after this documentary was filmed. So the Kraft-Belichick finale is a subject that's covered neither in this miniseries,

Starting point is 00:22:34 and it's not covered in Jeff's book either. So you're probably asking yourself, what does all of this mean? Well, in the final analysis, at least in my opinion, it's important to remember that the context in which the quotes I've shared with you today or any of the quotes that you're going to see splattered across social media as they relate to the dynasty in the coming days and weeks should include a full and comprehensive viewing of the documentary in its entirety. In other words, folks, watch the docuseries. Pay attention to all sides of the story. Don't take a single social media posting as gospel. Remember that there are multiple sides to every story. And as I always

Starting point is 00:23:11 like to say, quoting Aristotle, virtue probably lies somewhere in the middle. Let's not forget that this Brady-Belichick tandem remains among the most successful of its kind in professional sports. Together, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady participated in 285 regular season games, 41 postseason contests, a record-setting nine Super Bowl appearances, and their 219 combined victories is the most by any head coach and quarterback duo in the history of the NFL. Nothing that has been said, is being said now, or will be said in the future can ever take that away from these two. And because of that, I continue to urge you to go

Starting point is 00:23:51 into this documentary with an open mind. But I will say this, for the amount of people that were interviewed for this documentary, especially a lot of the former players, I've never heard that type of candor and raw emotion shared by so many before. I have to be honest and say it does add another thicket of light as well as a new perspective to the end of one of the NFL's greatest yet most controversial eras in its storied history, especially when it relates to the history of the New England Patriots. And with that, Pats fans, I thank you so much for making us a part of your daily Patriots coverage and, of course, for staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Don't forget, the first episodes of The Dynasty are set to release on Apple TV Plus

Starting point is 00:24:32 this Friday, February 16th, so be sure to watch. And, of course, I once again thank Matthew Hamachek for his appearance here today, but my deepest thanks, as always, go to all of you everydayers out there. Our Locked on loyalists i like to call you each and every one of you make locked on patriots what it is and i thank you for making us a daily part of your new england patriots coverage once again i'm mike debate reminding all of you to stay safe and to stay well and to be the change you wish to see in the world have a great day everyone and we'll see you back here again tomorrow

Starting point is 00:25:05 on Lucked on Patriots.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and ”The Dynasty” Docuseries

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