Stephon Gilmore Joins the Chorus of Patriots Who Hated 'The Dynasty.' And That Includes the Krafts, I Promise You.

Rob Carr. Getty Images.

Every time I think I'm out when it comes to writing posts about AppleTV's The Dynasty …

The fact the series ended over a month ago and it's still forcing me to address its blatant anti-Patriots biases is, in a backwards, pretzel logic way, a credit to the people who produced it. If they did a halfassed job of presenting the greatest sports Dynasty of modern times as chaotic mess and the head coach who built it as morally bankrupt cheating liar, Pats fans everywhere would've quickly gotten bored, changed the channel and forgotten we ever watched it. The fact it's still being discussed (and believe me, I'm still being asked what I thought of it everywhere I go), speaks to what an effective piece of propaganda it was. 

And as George Orwell pointed out so effectively over 75 years ago, propaganda can be a powerful tool for controlling the masses. The Dynasty is a sports documentary version of the "Two Minutes of Hate" in Orwell's 1984. Where the public is shown images of the enemies of the state, and they're compelled to vent their anger at the screens until they're finally shown Big Brother and official Party slogans. War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. Deflategate is Real. Belichick Knew All About Aaron Hernandez, etc. And like the Brotherhood in Orwell's book, no one questions whether it even exists; they just accept. 

Which is to say, no one but me, 100% of Patriots fans, and the most significant figures in the titular Dynasty. Julian Edelman. Matthew Slater. Rodney Harrison. Devin McCourty. Rob Gronkowski. Mr. Kraft:

All of whom were outraged at the way their coach was portrayed. And to that growing list, we can add the man who saved a Super Bowl victory even before he won Defensive Player of the Year for this team:

Source - Stephon Gilmore is the latest former New England player to take issue with the portrayal of coach Bill Belichick in The Dynasty, the documentary about the Patriots. …

“Just watched The Dynasty,” Gilmore wrote. “Bill was the greatest coach I’ve ever been around. Don’t let that fool you. I’ll never forget we were a predominantly man team during the 2018 season all the way up to the Super Bowl. When we played the Rams we switched to Zone. No coach would switch what they did all season in a big game like that. Or Him telling me to play trail technique in buffalo because the Quarterback can’t throw against the wind when i was following a big time receiver. If you ever played corner that’s not a good feeling playing trail technique. I shut the WR down to 0 catches.”

Amen, brother!

Let's hear it again, for the people in the back.

There's a common misconception about the series, even among the good, decent, God-fearin' folks of New England who appreciate all they have been given these many years. And it is that The Dynasty was a Kraft Productions project. They assume this because the company's name appears in the credits. But I can assure you that doesn't mean they exercised editorial control. They merely provided footage. Locker room celebrations. Practice field B-roll. Things of that nature. They no more responsible for this mess than NASA is if they get thanked at the end of an episode of Ancient Aliens. 

The blame for this goes to the documentary wing of Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment. Who told people in the organization who were unhappy with the finished product that if they wanted a fair and accurate representation of those 20 years, they should've gone to NFL Films. That they're in the business of telling a compelling story, not objectivity. That it was never meant for Patriots fans; it was for the rest of the public who either hated them or was never really paying attention. Which is why we ended up with 10 total seconds about the 2003 and '04 champions, but a half hour on Drew Bledsoe's old grudges and an entire True Crime episode dedicated to Hernandez. 

So you can be angry with the interview subjects who came across as blaming Belichick every time something didn't go right. But they deserve the benefit of the doubt. When you sit down and talk for 20+ hours like Mr. Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Ernie Adams and the aforementioned players, it's not hard for the producers to cherry pick the negative-sounding things and litter the editing room floor with hours upon hours of you heaping praise upon the smartest coach to ever strap on a whistle. Especially when the people producing the series have made it clear they were never interested in giving anyone a fair shake. 

So go easy on them. With the possible exceptions of Danny Amendola and Wes Welker, who came across as still maximum-loyal to Tom Brady and deeply resentful toward Belichick, the HC of the NEPs is still genuinely appreciated by those who worked with him. As well as the ones who had the wisdom to hire and employ him for 24 years. Don't let some film crew with a major agenda convince you otherwise.