Episode 1 of 'Forged in Foxborough' is the Patriots Porn We Need
When the Patriots first announced they were releasing a documentary series about these past few months, I think I lot of resentful cynics and media members (but I repeat myself) dismissed it as mere propaganda. Kraft Productions' attempt to gloss over the failures and mistakes of the last couple of years and give a disillusioned fanbase hope for a brighter future. But if anyone who looks at Forged in Foxborough that way is overlooking a key in all of this.
Sometimes we all want to be propagandized.
I don't mean like Leni Riefenstahl films or North Korea announcing that Dear Leader just wrote another of his famous operas and shot 18 holes in one. But I do think there's a time and place for a little upbeat positivity. That time is now. That place is in the brains of fans who've seen the best Dynasty in sports go tits up with back-to-back 4-win seasons. What I need is a heapin' helpin' of the sort of over-the-top, exaggerated, morally unambiguous cheerleading for my football team. The Patriots equivalent of the sort of campaign ads Ronald Reagan ran on, where it's Morning in America and we're a Shining City on a Hill and our hockey team just pants the Red Menace on our home ice and made us believe we're a great country again. Spoon feed me that sweet, sweet propagandist pap and I'll believe it because I want to believe it.
Though to be fair to Forged in Foxborough, it's not that. I would've been happy if it was. But what I appreciate about it so far is what it is not. Which is every other documentary about this franchise over the past 15 or so years. With the exception of the Do Your Job and 3 Games to Glory series Kraft Productions did about the last three championship seasons, every other doc about this team has focused on the negative. Real, imagined or grossly exaggerated. No series was more guilty of that then Apple+'s The Dynasty, which took 20 years of unprecedented success and reduced it to a True Crime podcast. Grim, dreary, downcast. And the architect of that success was protrayed like a Big Tobacco executive who lied to Congress about giving cancer to toddlers.
So far, FiF has none of that. Granted, it doesn't have six championships, either. (Not yet, anyway.) But there's none of the elements that were the foundation of all past hatchet jobs. No Pliability Wars. No Alex Guerrero. Nothing about spy cameras and psi numbers. No surly former players trashing the coach who made them rich, household names with multiple rings. And zero murderers on the roster.
Instead, we get a behind the scenes look at an NFL team on a rebuild. Mostly focused - as it should be - on a new head coach installing his roster and laying down the tone of what is going to be a new culture of hard work and accountability:
And above all, toughness. As one scout says, “I would say toughness is the biggest thing, where it’s a non-negotiable. It’s hard to bring players to the table with Vrabes that you aren’t convinced are real tough guys.” We're all here for that.
Is it breaking new ground? Reinventing the sports documentary wheel? Showing us things in ways never seen before on a hundred episodes of Hard Knocks? None of the above. But if you have any interest at all in watching a strong, confident, veteran head coach with a big personality take on his second shot at running a NFL franchise building his program (Note that the editors kept their Film School graduate vow to always cut to scenes of construction workers operating heavy machinery as Vrabel talks about building a foundation), then this is the series for you. It certainly is for me.
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Other quick observations:
We get confirmation of what had already been reported, that the Pats college scouting department had been hellbent on drafting Will Campbell long before they ended up at the top of the draft. And there was never any doubt they were going to grab him at No. 4 once Vrabel came on the scene:
They turned down a couple of offers for the 38th overall pick, including the Bears, who wanted to trade up from No. 39. The New England war room assumed they were interested in TreVeyon Hendrickson, and took him instead.
Kyle Williams blew the scouts away with his workouts at the Senior Bowl:
And as far as the roster building goes, one big impression you get from watching is that Eliot Wolf is here to stay. He gets more face time in the first episode than Kevin Hart gets during any given sporting event. Wolf, Vrabel and VP of player personnel Ryan Cowden are very much a trio, collaborating on decisions throughout the draft process, and Wolf is the one working the phones on trades. There's no sign of the question you always get in an arranged marriage like this, "What happens when they don't agree." But the dynamic very much feels like Vrabel would have final say, but defers to Wolf and Cowden to handle their business.
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Anyway, as we kick off the Summer of Optimism, this content could not be coming at a better time. Simultaneously giving you a look into how this new regime is conducting the rebuild, giving us relief from all the baggage that accumulated during the remarkable Dynasty years, and giving us an honest reason to feel good about this team's prospects, knowing it's in the best possible hands. Now if you'll excuse me, I need a little "alone time" to watch this one again before Episode 2 drops. Hold all my calls.