Mr. Kraft Lets it Be Known He Was as Disappointed by 'The Dynasty' as Patriots Fans Were

CJ GUNTHER. Shutterstock Images.

I've made my utter contempt for AppleTV's biased, slanted, slanderous Patriots documentary abundantly clear:

If they did a docuseries about me called Old Balls, that was nothing but 10 hours of videos and interviews accusing me of stealing jokes, ripping off other Patriots writers, giving Kate Middleton cancer, and being the guest of honor at one of Diddy's sex parties, I wouldn't be more offended than I was by the treatment this series gave Belichick. I could take the scurrilous lies. This is the business I've chosen. But the best coach of all time earned the benefit of the doubt about six banners ago. At the very least, he deserves a fair hearing before the public. Which he did not get. Not by a damned sight. 

And while discussing how some of the most important players of the Belichick Epoch have spoken out against the harsh treatment he got in The Dynasty, I had this to say:

I imagine we'll be hearing more from the others who appeared on camera distancing themselves from this thing. And I hope the Krafts are among them. It's impossible to watch The Dynasty, then see how Patriots fans are reacting to it, and not be reminded of that hit piece that appeared in The Boston Globe (written by Bob Hohler, who was also in this doc) that smeared Terry Francona when he left the Red Sox under the best possible terms in 2011. All that article did was make fans even more loyal to Tito and breed resentment toward ownership for planting the story. No one really has any idea how much involvement the Krafts had in the production and editing of The Dynasty. But now would be the perfect time to express their objections to the way it came out, the way some of the best players in franchise history have.

And today, I got my wish. Ask and ye shall receive:

PFT - On Tuesday, Kraft was asked about the show during a media availability at the league meetings in Orlando.

“I loved the first three episodes,” Kraft said, via Mike Reiss of ESPN.com. “I felt bad that there was so much emphasis on the more controversial and let’s say ‘challenging’ situations over the last 20 years. I wish they had focused more on our Super Bowl wins, our 21-game win streak. I felt bad there were players who gave hours and hours of interviews and they felt only the negativity. People like Devin McCourty and Rodney Harrison and Matthew [Slater] — although I just heard quietly they’ve all felt that way. Actually there were some really prominent people who were interviewed for hours that never were used. So a little disappointed that there wasn’t more of a real positive approach — especially for Patriot fans who have lived the experience with us.”

Kraft also was asked about the perception that The Dynasty went out of its way to paint Belichick as a villain.

“Look, I’ll state this clearly,” Kraft said. “I feel so privileged that we had Bill here. We hope when he’s finished that we’re going to have a chance to honor him the way we will do with Tom Brady this year. We did this little ceremony at halftime of the Eagles game [for Brady], but it was not adequate. . . . I look forward to the privilege of putting Bill into the Patriots Hall of Fame one day in the future.”

This to me is key. A lot of Pats fans have been hyper-critical of RKK and Jonathan Kraft and hold them accountable for the editorial bent of the series. And see it as a piece of propaganda meant to make ownership look good and place anything that went wrong over the last 24 years squarely on the sweatpants-laden lap of the big brained Croatian genius who built the titular Dynasty. In the same way we all understood Red Sox ownership was responsible for the Francona hit piece. 

But you'll note that I never once made the same allegation. Just because the credits of The Dynasty mention Kraft Productions doesn't make it a Kraft Production. That merely acknowledged that it used footage provided by the Patriots in-house film company. Postgame locker room celebrations, film sessions in the meeting room, and the like. There's a hell of a lot of difference between the Krafts allowing the use of footage and sitting in the editing bay saying, "I need you to cut this part where Bill gets praise Rodney Harrison and put in more stuff where he looks awkward talking about Aaron Hernandez" like they're Martin Scorcese putting together Killers of the Flower Moon.

I've been asked dozens of times if I thought the Kraft family exercised editorial control over this series and every time answered no. Because long before Mr. Kraft bought the team, he was a fan. A Patriots season ticket holder, but a fan of all the Boston teams. Meaning he's been through the bad times. He's experienced the lean years in four different sports. Times when it felt like there was no hope for a future like the two decades we just enjoyed. The idea that a man who oversaw all this success would suddenly do a WWE-style heel turn on the man who rewarded the faith he put in him a million times over is unthinkable. And it would be laughable, were it not for the fact RKK is being accused of the worst kind of petty vindictiveness. 

So I'm glad he answered the call and put this show on blast as I'd hoped he would. More than anything, I'm glad I didn't take the bait and assume that Kraft the Elder and Kraft the Younger would be capable of stabbing their most important collaborator in the back, just to earn social credit points from AppleTV subscribers. I refused to believe that after all the good this ownership has done. As Patton put it, "I'm a man of many faults, but ingratitude isn't one of them." 

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And when they unveil that statue of Belichick just outside of Gillette, the people who said they're responsible for the content of The Dynasty are going to look even more stupid than they do now. 

Now, as always, Kiss the Rings: