6 rings: Behind THE DYNASTY with Author Jeff Benedict
The first two episodes of Apple TV+’s The Dynasty: New England Patriots officially dropped on Friday morning, setting the stage for the 10-episode docuseries recapping the greatest run in sports history that took place in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
Here are some rapid reactions, nuggets, and takeaways from Episode One: Backup Plan:
– Drew Bledsoe was the man.
When Robert Kraft bought the Patriots in January of 1994, they already had a franchise quarterback. His name was Drew Bledsoe.
New England drafted the Walla Walla, Washington native with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft, and he became an instant star. Bledsoe went to three Pro Bowls in his first five seasons, and led the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI.
“We hadn’t lost hope because we had Drew Bledsoe,” long-time Pats fan Tony Lapolito explains in the doc. “The All-American quarterback. He was our boy. He was our savior. He was tall, he was handsome. Drew Bledsoe was the whole package.”
He was the man.
Blesdoe was in McDonalds commercials where he was being dubbed a “future Hall of Famer”, he played in a Super Bowl before Tom Brady ever started at quarterback for the Michigan Wolverines, and he was, at one point, the highest-paid player in NFL history after signing a 10-year, $103 million contract in March of 2001.
He then started just two more games in a Patriots uniform -- the first two of the 2001 season, before being knocked out of their Week 2 contest vs. the Jets by linebacker Mo Lewis.
The rest, we now know, is history.
– The Patriots knew their job immediately following Bledsoe’s injury, and did it.
When Bledsoe went down in Week 2, the Patriots (and specifically their defense) knew they had a job to do in order to elevate then second-year quarterback in Tom Brady.
“There was a lot of uneasiness,” said Patriots center Damien Woody of the feeling in the locker room. “Drew’s hurt. Your $100 million quarterback is down. Morale is low. And Tom gives a speech to the team, basically saying like: ‘Believe in me. Let’s get it together. I wanna work my ass off. You’re gonna work your ass off. We got it. We got this.’ But for him to really come out and say that – it takes a lot of balls. Because remember, trust is earned. What has he done really to earn that? Imagine saying that to the Willie McGinest’s and the Tedy Bruschi’s, like all these veterans.”
“Tom gathered us around,” Bruschi said of that moment. “And like I remember thinking: ‘Aw look at the kid, he’s trying… For anyone that says, ‘Oh yeah, we knew Tom was going to lead us to victories’, that’s bullshit. I mean come on, this guy’s never done anything for us before.”
That’s why they had to lean so heavily on their defense – and they knew it.
“At that time the defense pretty much ran the team,” McGinest, who New England selected with the fourth overall pick in the 1994 draft, explained. “We were the foundation. I remember corraling the defense and [being] like, ‘Look, next week we can’t give up points. We just can’t. And as soon as the ball gets snapped, the first play of the game, we’ gonna hit somebody in the f– mouth. It’s f– go time.”
A 44-13 win, over the Peyton Manning-led Indianapolis Colts, ensued. Three combined rushing touchdowns from Antowain Smith and Kevin Faulk, two defensive pick-sixes from Ty Law and Otis Smith off of Manning, and three field goals through the uprights from Adam Vinatieri sealed the deal in Brady’s first NFL start.
“You know we kicked their ass,” the quarterback explains. “But we didn’t kick their ass because I was some stellar quarterback. We kicked their ass because our defense played great and we could run the ball.”
Again, the rest is history.
– Patriots veterans played quite the prank on Tom Brady during his rookie season
NFL veterans always find ways to prank the incoming rookies in a given season - whether it’s a rookie dinner with a ridiculous bill, the Tim Tebow ‘friar’ haircut, or packing the new guys truck with packing peanuts,
When Tom Brady was a rookie in 2000, the Patriots’ vets got him good.
“And so we would prank him a little but. It was sort of a right of passage,” Bledsoe said. “So [in the] FBI, if there’s gonna be a bank robbery and they think there’s going to be a bank robbery, they have this special dye that you can’t see. And so they put it on the money and you can’t see it all until it gets slightly wet. So just a little perspiration on your hands – then it’s permanent.
“So we were able to lay our hands on some of this FBI stuff and we filled Tommy’s socks full of it. He goes out to practice, his feet sweat, and he comes back in and his feet are bright purple. For weeks.”
“All my teammates, they helped me grow up,” Brady explained of the rookie year hijinx. “I went in there as the little punk-ass kid and they brought me into their squad.”
“He was never a threat, right?” Blesdoe said, ironically. “This was not the guy that I was worried about.”
– Tom Brady bought his first Massachusetts condo from teammate Ty Law.
This one may already be common knowledge, but when Brady made the final 53-man roster hs decided to settle down in Massachusetts and buy a condo which his teammate Ty Law sold to him. Their banter about it was comical:
Law: “When I sold that to Tom, I knew that he wasn’t making no money at the time. So I’m thinking, ‘I gotta keep it… pass it down to the young boys. They’re… just trying to hold on. I left the furniture, the mattresses, everything… I finished the basement out real nice, I had the TV set up. There wasn’t no flat screens then, but it looked like a flat screen – you know you had that big boot TV set in the wall. You know I laid it out right. Put it this way, I left 150 grand on the table. That’s why imma call him now when he done because I mean, that’s 150 grand. Tom owes me $150,000!
Brady: “He’s full of shit! Ty fleeced me, and then Ty thinks, ‘Oh I gave you some big gift,’ I’m like Ty, I overpaid. I love Ty to death. But no, you didn’t give me a f—- deal Ty get that shit outta here.”
– From a press conference at MGH, Drew Bledsoe anticipates being the Patriots starting quarterback. Bill Belichick, however, has other plans.
After Drew Bledsoe was cleared to return to football, he and the Patriots’ team physician, Bertran Zarins, held a press conference at Mass General Hospital to announce that the quarterback would come back.
“I’m itching to get back in,” Blesdoe explained from the dais when asked how he’s feeling. “I feel healthy. From the time I was a rookie I’ve been the starter on the team, and I anticipate being the starter on the team again.”
He then called Bill Belichick on his way home from the hospital to tell him that he’d been cleared, and he didn’t sound as thrilled as Bledsoe thought he’d be:
“His response was like, ‘Okay well, just get back here and then we’ll see how it goes.’ I thought he would be a little more excited that I got clearance then he seemed to be on the phone. That was the first indication that I had that, you know, maybe this isn’t playing out where I just get to go back and start playing again.”
“I mean look, Drew hadn’t played in several weeks. And Tom, he had played the previous, however many games it was. Tom was, at that point in time, the most accomplished in running out offense.”
– Robert Kraft wasn’t a fan of Belichick continuing to start Tom Brady over Drew Bledsoe, and even spoke to the head coach about his decision.
“When Drew was cleared medically and Bill didn’t put him back,” the Patriots owner explains in the docuseries. “I didn’t feel good about it, and I felt that Drew was treated unfairly.”
“People who have been loyal to us are like family,” said Jonthan Kraft, Robert’s son. “And Drew really was like a fifth son to my dad. And I watched him agonize over this whole thing with Drew. My dad could only imagine how that was eating Drew up inside and he had to much personal affection for him. It made it doubly difficult.”
Kraft decided, after a talk with Bledsoe, that he was going to talk with Belichick and the coaching staff about the decision to start Brady over him. According to former Patriots VP of personnel Scott Pioli, he told the head coach, “Listen: if this is what you guys believe, and this is the way it’s going to be, it just needs to be right.”
“I came back and met with Drew in my office,” said Kraft about the interaction with Belichick. “And I said, ‘Look Drew, I could tell him that I want you to start. If that’s not what he wants to do, that’s not in your or my best interest. If nothing else, he can mess it up and I can hold him accountable.”
– Bill Belichick has quite the history with quarterbacks.
If no one else wants to say it, I will: Bill Belichick’s history with quarterbacks has been suspect throughout his career.
When Belichick was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns in the ‘90’s, he cut quarterback Bernie Kosar in middle of the 1993 season citing a “diminishing of his physical skills.” The then-41-year-old took tremendous heat for the decision, something that Patriots fans may not fully realize.
“Bernie wasn’t just a quarterback, he was an icon.” Scott Pioli, who also worked with Belichick in Cleveland, described of Kosar’s aura in the city. “He was from Ohio, so he was a local guy. He was a Brown. He had a very good career, yet it was starting to head in the other direction. Bernie broke his ankle, and when he came back he was less mobile than he had been in the past. Bill decided that for the Browns to move forward, it had to be without Bernie.”
Cleveland and it’s fans were up in arms over the decision.
“We didn’t have a legitimate, top-end NFL starter. And Bill caught hell for it,” Pioli continued. “...There were people protesting. There were threats made to Bill. There were threats made to the Browns. Bill had to have police at the entrance of the neighborhood that they lived in. It was tough on him, but it was tougher on his family.”
Belichick was fired from Cleveland following the 1995 season.
While we now know that the decision to start Brady over Bledsoe ultimately worked out, his track record at the quarterback position was (among many reasons) why the decision was so heavily questioned and scrutinized.
“The Drew Bledsoe decision," said Pioli. “It reminded us of the whole Bernie Kosar thing.”
Make sure to follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick, and follow @WEEI for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
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