These Old Balls Were Right Again: Rodney Harrison and Devin McCourty are Pissed by How Negative 'The Dynasty' Was Toward Belichick Too

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When you're as critical as I was toward a documentary series about a two-decade run of unprecedented success that still somehow managed to be as hyper-critical of the architect of that success as AppleTV's The Dynasty was:

… you're going to take some blowback. People are going to accuse you of being a Bill Belichick apologist. They're going to call you a shameless Patriots fanboy. They'll claim you don't want to take the bad with the good, no matter how accurate it is. All of which is true to one degree or another. 

Which is fine by me. Come at me, bro. When you start taking flak, you know you're over your intended target. And I won't beg for forgiveness when a good 90% of the series was dedicated toward minimizing Belichick's role in the titular Dynasty, while maximizing every controversy and nontroversy over 20 years and laying them directly on his lap. Hell, even his decision to bench Drew Bledsoe in favor of Tom Brady in 2001 was characterized as a betrayal of a good and honorable man, instead of what it was. Which is nothing short of the best personnel decision in the history of decision-making. 

In all, the whole tone and tenor of The Dynasty was to treat the winningest coach in history like he was on trial for war crimes. So rip me for calling out the dishonesty of the whole series.  I apologize for nothing. This was exactly what the producers were going for from before they ever clipped a mic onto anyone's lapel and started rolling tape.

But if you don't want to take my word for it, then just listen to two guys who were not only interview subjects, but two of the most important figures in the Belichick Era. No one less than the best safeties from each half of the Dynasty saying the same thing in their own words. And they are pissed about it:

For those of you who can't listen to the video:

Daily Mail - McCourty and Harrison also both sat down with filmmakers but felt their commentary was unfairly cut. 

'I felt like I got kind of duped,' McCourty said in a conversation with fellow former Patriots safety Rodney Harrison, in a clip shared by Pro Football Talk on X. …

'I was like, "Man, this is gonna be great. Like the storytelling, we're talking about this, and we're talking about that." Everything that we all gave to the 20 years that it encompassed, they only hit anything that was negative.' …

McCourty felt it didn't provide an accurate portrayal of the entire dynasty by focusing on so much of the negativity surrounding the team.  

'Hey, we won at a high level, and guys stayed there. Like I could've left two times; I signed back. There's reasons why,' McCourty said. 

Harrison agreed, adding: 'It didn't tell the stories like of me coming, and Corey Dillon. 

'I interviewed for five or six hours, I was in New York, and all they had me say was "F* 'em all, f* 'em all.' Like, that's it!' Harrison continued, referring to the episode focusing on the team's attitude during the Spygate controversy in 2007. …

Harrison argued that the head coach was unfairly portrayed in a bad light.

'Think about this: He gave me an opportunity, a fifth-round draft choice,' Harrison said. 

'He gave Tom Brady an opportunity. He sent out a hundred-million-dollar quarterback when no one thought it was popular and started Tom Brady. 

'He gives guys who are the underdog an opportunity. No one talks about that. When everybody else is done with a guy, he brings in a Corey Dillon, he brings in a Randy Moss, he brings in a Rodney Harrison. 

'And I just don't think that he got enough credit, enough respect, enough props, man. This dude is the greatest coach of all time.'

Emphasis mine. And to these two greats and winners of multiple rings, I say on behalf of a grateful Patriots Nation:

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I get that Belichick is, in his own words, not the easiest man to play for. His methods are difficult. He is direct, to the point of being dismissive. His unwillingness to speak openly and honestly costs him at times. He can be guarded about what he's thinking to a fault. And by keeping team matters behind closed doors, he can do himself a disservice. The lack of knowledge causes the public to assume the worst. Resulting in a docuseries like this one. 

And I don't ask for much toward the man. Only what Rodney said: Credit. Respect. Props, man. I ask nothing more, and I'll accept nothing less. 

There's a reason McCourty and Harrison signed and re-signed to play for him. And it's because all his aforementioned methods that frustrate the rest of the world and make them resent him, brought out the best in his players. The players who priortize winning over everything else, anyway. Which Includes these two as well as the vast majority of players who came through this system and thrived here. And any portrayal of the coach that leaves those testimonies on the cutting room floor in favor of running with the stuff where a Boston Globe reporter insintuates he knew full well what a monster Aaron Hernandez was but did nothing about it is, by definition, unfair and unobjective. Which is why his star players feel "duped" by how biased and negative it was. 

And I couldn't agree more. In a perfect world, Belichick would form a production company and tell his own version. The Dynasty 2.0: The Wrath of Bill. But he's got other worlds to conquer.