‘Dynasty’ Director Explains Why Patriots’ Early Super Bowls Glossed Over

Many Patriots fans who have watched the first episodes of the documentary “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” have had a few early criticisms.

Among them is how the docuseries did not dive into New England winning either Super Bowl 38 or Super Bowl 39. The dynastic run of three Super Bowls in four years was more or less glossed over, only getting a few minutes of airtime in Episode 3.

While appearing on MassLive’s “Eye On Foxborough” podcast, director Matthew Hamachek explained what led to the decision. Hamachek said he understood why Patriots fans might feel that way, but felt many of the stories already had been told.

“They’ve been covered by NFL Films. They’ve been covered by ‘Three Games to Glory.’ Tom Brady covered them in his 10-part doc series,” Hamachek said on the podcast, as transcribed by MassLive’s Chris Mason. “So the beginning of this story is about the Little Engine That Could, or the David that turns into Goliath. David slays Goliath and becomes Goliath. I’m sure as a fan this is not what anybody wants to hear, but I just felt like those Super Bowls had been covered so well by a bunch of other people that it wasn’t advancing our question that much to continue to go into them.”

Hamachek shared the 2003 season was in consideration for more air time given it coincided with the arrival of Rodney Harrison. But for the same reason, it didn’t make the final cut.

“We even started to cut the Lawyer Milloy leaves and Rodney Harrison comes in and then it’s like OK, here we go,” Hamachek said on the podcast. “We’re going to cover the practice where Rodney throws his helmet at somebody and the whole team piles up on top of him and then everybody says, ‘That was the moment when…’ And you guys know that story. Anybody listening to this podcast knows that story. And there’s a reason: It’s been told so much.

“So I just didn’t feel like we needed to tell that story again because I think what we had captured was episodes 1 and 2 and then 3, which was really the idea, the concept of team-first,” Hamachek continued. “I feel like we had gotten a good sense of the culture and what worked so well to create those three Super Bowls.”

For coverage of “The Dynasty: New England Patriots” click here. Episodes 7 and 8 are set to air on Apple+ on Friday.