Director of controversial Patriots documentary responds to criticism after Tom Brady roast

A week ago, former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick spoke at the Tom Brady roast, commenting publicly on Apple TV's The Dynasty series for the first time. 

"Seriously, I’m so honored to be here for the roast of Tom Brady on Netflix... not to be confused with the 10-part Bill Belichick roast during the Apple TV doc," Belichick said.

And he was not the only one to feel that this was a piece that painted Belichick in a very negative light. Many of the former players felt the same. 

So A to Z Sports took a moment to speak with The Dynasty director Matthew Hamachek following Belichick's comments, giving him the opportunity to explain his point of view. 

“It was interesting to see them," Hamachek said. "One of the things that the players said is that they thought we should have been nicer to Bill and that we should have said more about how great of a coach he was. And that was a bit perplexing to me because, if you look at basically the first five episodes of the series, they’re really a love letter to Bill Belichick’s coaching."

"The first three episodes are about him making one of the greatest coaching calls of all time and going with Tom Brady over Drew Bledsoe," Hamachek elaborated. "Obviously in the Spygate episode, it’s not a chapter that I’m sure Bill would like to talk about over and over again, as you can see in the doc. But that episode is really about the entire team under his leadership rallying around him and getting his back and going on this incredible run. And then the fifth episode is Tom going out with an injury and Coach Belichick and people are talking about in the series, saying it’s one of his greatest coaching seasons of all time. It’s making people start to question the greatest of Tom Brady. These things were things that people were talking about and I think that, from my perspective, the first five episodes of the series were really about how great of a coach Bill Belichick is."

However, it's the later episodes where things took a turn. But it was all a part of the Patriots historic run and it had to be told. 

Yet, when the series concluded, it ended with a game that truly showed Belichick's defensive expertise. 

"And I think we also ended the final episodes on the final victory against the Rams where Coach Belichick essentially reinvented the Patriots defense right in the two weeks leading up to that Super Bowl," Hamachek explained. "I think we were fair and fairly balanced in the way that we approached it.” 

Belichick also had many opportunities to speak during the series, but in his typical fashion, he chose not to bring up the past. 

“One of the things that I wanted to make sure that the audience saw me giving Bill Belichick the chance to tell his side of the story," Hamachek added. "And that’s the reason why there’s a few times where I ask him a question and then he said, ‘I’m not interested in revisiting that,’ or things like that. And then even the amount of time that we would give for the camera to sort of hang onto his answer after he stopped talked was to make sure the audience understood there’s not more here that we’re not showing. This is really sort of what his answer was… He’s such an incredible coach and deserves the opportunity to be able to comment on some of the things that people have said, so that’s the reason I ask them the questions. 

And it also didn't help that many thought that while it was a hit piece on Belichick, it was also a puff piece on Patriots owner Robert Kraft. 

“I don’t really see it that way. I think that in the third episode, we talked about how Coach Parcells sort of sees Robert at that point in time as this inexperienced owner who didn’t really know anything about football and didn’t agree with the decisions he was making," the director said. "So when people, sort of like the way that we do with everybody, when people have something to say that talks about this larger theme, I think we put it in whether it was good, bad or indifferent.” 

The timing of the series also played a part in the reaction from fans. It came out after Belichick and Kraft mutually parted ways after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl championships. So people started believing that Hamachek knew all along that this was going to be the outcome after the 2023 season. 

“I think that a lot of them thought I had a crystal ball and that somehow I knew that Bill Belichick was going to be gone at the end of the season or something like that. And nothing could be farther from the truth," Hamachek said. "I mean, I was shocked and I think we wrapped our story and editorial part of the making of this thing in December or so of last year. And then when the news broke, I was absolutely shocked by it. So I had no idea. I thought Bill Belichick was going to be there forever. And I’m sure that his departure had something to do with the way that people reacted to it in Boston in particular. But wasn’t really on my mind, and I think more than anything else, these are the guys that were there."

"These are not anonymous sources in an article or an anonymous source who talked to another anonymous source," Hamachek added. "These are the people that were there and this is what they have to say and so let’s let them say it. And I think you really got to see how everybody felt about it. And I think the other thing is myself, the people that I made this with, we don’t really like to sort of do a lot of hand holding with the audience and to say this is how you should feel about what this person is saying right now. I think that what that means is that it leaves open a lot of interpretation by the audience."

"And I think that a lot of ways, this film is a bit of a Rorschach test and that if you were upset that Bill Belichick had left and you started to watch this thing. Even in the first episode, I remember people on Twitter saying, ‘Yeah, but Bill was right because he picked Tom Brady. He wasn’t wrong.’ And I was reading that thinking, ‘do people actually think that I’m saying that he made the wrong choice.’ I think everything was very, very passionate in Boston at the time. And I think that that really changed how they perceived it."

With this piece Hamachek aimed to tell the story of the Patriots Dynasty, both the high and the low moments. But it was never meant to be a dig at one person. It was meant to celebrate what they overcame to get to where they are today.