Jeff Benedict, author of 'The Dynasty,' weighs in on the Kansas City Chiefs being the next big dynasty, who he thinks will win Super Bowl LIX and more. Watch!
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00:00History could be made Sunday as Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs seek the first Super Bowl three-peat
00:06in NFL history.
00:08Mahomes is just 29, but are they already one of the great dynasties in sports history?
00:15Well, Jeff Benedict actually wrote the book, Dynasty, based on the New England Patriots
00:20recent reign atop the sports world.
00:23The book is also an incredible Apple TV series streaming.
00:27The 17-time bestselling author and Emmy-winning producer joins us now.
00:31Jeff, great to have you on the show.
00:33Really appreciate the time.
00:34With the caveat that you were given unprecedented access to the Patriots, on the surface, how
00:40similar are these two dynasties, if you will, the Chiefs and Patriots?
00:45Well, I think probably the origin of the two is pretty similar.
00:50The Patriots won their first three Super Bowls in a four-year span.
00:55They did it really early in the partnership between Belichick, Brady and Kraft.
01:01That's similar to Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Hunt family.
01:06You know, they've come out of the gate.
01:08They've won a few Super Bowls rapidly.
01:11They're on the cusp of potentially winning their third in a row.
01:15But I think where they differ, and this is a huge difference, is after the Patriots won
01:20three Super Bowls in four years, very similar to the Chiefs, they went a decade without
01:26winning another Super Bowl.
01:28And what separates this Patriots dynasty from all its predecessors, the 49ers in the 80s
01:35with Montana and Walsh and DiBartolo, the Steelers in the 70s or the Packers in the
01:4060s, was that all of those dynasties ended after they had their run of Super Bowls.
01:46The Patriots stayed together for 10 more years, the same nucleus, and then came back
01:50and won three more Super Bowls.
01:53And I think that's really what separates them the most from the Chiefs.
01:57Yeah.
01:58As Julian Edelman told me last week, when you look at Tom Brady's career, he actually
02:01had three separate Hall of Fame careers, which is really impossible to even process that.
02:08So what could keep this Chiefs dynasty together?
02:11What could break them up?
02:13I think just it's sort of the laws of nature are what are going to probably break them up.
02:19It was unprecedented until Brady-Belichick-Craft that the owner, the coach and the quarterback
02:26stayed together for 20 years, literally two decades.
02:31It would be really difficult, I think, for Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes to be together
02:36for 20 years.
02:37I mean, it's hard for anybody to do that.
02:40That's why it had never been done before.
02:42And I think it's really unlikely the Chiefs can keep that nucleus together for that long.
02:47I mean, does Andy Reid coach for 10 more years?
02:50Not likely.
02:52So the real question is, you know, how many Super Bowls can they win while they're together?
02:56Yeah.
02:57Andy Reid is 66 years old.
02:59Let's talk about the main characters in the two.
03:02At least the leading men appear very different.
03:05Mahomes, a generational physical talent, arguably unlike we've ever seen in football.
03:11Would you say that of Tom Brady, though?
03:14I think here's where Tom Brady and LeBron James are very similar in the sense that their
03:21conditioning and their commitment to their bodies is unmatched.
03:27And I mean, there was no one in the NFL who trained and was as disciplined as Tom was
03:34with his body.
03:36That's what allowed him to play for well over 20 years, going on to Tampa and continuing
03:41to play at the top level.
03:43That's hard to find, just like in basketball.
03:45Same thing with LeBron, doing it at age 40 and still being at the peak.
03:50And I think so that's, you know, look, no one questions Patrick's talent, obviously.
03:54He is a generational talent.
03:56But to survive at the top for that long in this game is hard to do anyways, because it's
04:02such a physical game.
04:04You know, those are questions yet to be, you know, really yet to be answered.
04:08Yeah, you can't help but wonder as well, with Mahomes making exponentially more money than
04:12Tom Brady ever did, can you keep that drive for 20 years the way Brady did?
04:18It'll be interesting to find out.
04:19Now, there's the mastermind, Bill Belichick, of course, the curmudgeonly genius.
04:24Andy Reid, really the antithesis of that, is he underrated because of his demeanor?
04:31You know, I don't know that Andy Reid's underrated.
04:33I don't think he is.
04:35People in everyone in the business, any coach that's on the opposite side of the field during
04:39a game knows what they're up against with Andy Reid.
04:42The thing that's different about Andy and Bill is really a lot of it has to do with
04:45demeanor and style and how he interacts with his players and his coaches.
04:51I mean, Andy Reid is he's beloved throughout the league.
04:55There isn't a team with a vacancy that wouldn't want to hire him if if he ever left the Chiefs,
05:01which I doubt he ever will.
05:03But I mean, I think that that's a big part of who Andy is.
05:06I mean, he's he's loved in Philly, even though he's not in Philly anymore.
05:12And he'll always be beloved in Philly.
05:14He's really been kind of beloved anywhere he's gone.
05:17Bill basically hunkered down in New England.
05:20He stayed there for, you know, over two decades and and then left.
05:25And I you know, I just think that there's a lot of differences between their personalities
05:30and how they carry themselves.
05:33No doubt about that.
05:34And to remind folks, Andy Reid is the winningest head coach in Eagles history and Chiefs history,
05:40which is rather remarkable.
05:42I can't help but ask how you think Bill Belichick will translate to college football, knowing
05:46what you know about his personality and his style.
05:52He's in a world that's so different than the world he's lived in for his entire life.
05:56I mean, and especially because college football is so different today than it was even a few
06:01years ago.
06:02It's a new universe where players can come and go.
06:05Players can get paid.
06:06They can make money.
06:07There's all kinds of incentives to leave.
06:09And he's in North Carolina.
06:11You know, it's Tobacco Road.
06:13That's basketball country.
06:14He's not at Ohio State or Michigan or one of the one of these premier programs.
06:19So I it's an enormous challenge to take on at that stage of your life.
06:24But, you know, a lot of people will be watching to see how how that all plays out for him.
06:30Yeah, it's interesting how he'll handle the essentially free agency every single year.
06:37That is unlike anything really in sports, certainly not like the NFL, because you've
06:40got to recruit your own team every year.
06:43So what people will find out in your book is there was an obvious tension between Belichick
06:49and Brady.
06:50Do you see that same dynamic with Mahomes and Reed, though?
06:56Absolutely not.
06:57Absolutely not.
06:58But there's the big but.
07:00And I think that you've got to remember that the tension between Bill and Tom wasn't present
07:08when they after they'd won three Super Bowls.
07:11They were together 20 years.
07:13It's a marriage.
07:14It's very, very long.
07:16And I think, you know, Patrick and Andy, obviously, their personalities are different.
07:20There's a lot of things different about them than Bill and Tom.
07:24But also, if you just look at the point in time they're at, that tension hadn't entered
07:29the the Brady Belichick relationship yet at that stage.
07:34Look, if Andy and Patrick played together for 20 years, I mean, who knows?
07:40But I just think that, you know, Bill and Tom, the reason they won so much was because
07:44they were so intense.
07:47They were probably more committed to winning than anyone else in their respective jobs
07:53at that time.
07:54And when you put two people like that together and then, you know, kind of make them stay
07:58together for 20 years.
08:00And that was really Robert's role in the back half of the Patriots dynasty.
08:04I mean, the first 10 years, Bill and Tom operated very differently than they did in the second
08:0910 years.
08:10And the role of the owner is much more impactful and critical in those second 10 years.
08:16I think the owner actually has a much bigger role in the fact that those further Super
08:21Bowl titles came to New England, because probably to their own devices, Bill and Tom wouldn't
08:26have stayed together that long.
08:28And that was my big lesson and most from that I covered the Patriots for five seasons.
08:34And frankly, I did not realize the role that Bob Kraft played there.
08:39What did he do?
08:40How would you characterize that for people that haven't yet read the book?
08:43How?
08:44What did he do to keep Belichick and Brady together?
08:48Well, I describe him like a bridge.
08:51He is he became the bridge between Bill and Tom.
08:55I mean, there was a long period of years where, you know, Bill and Tom didn't they didn't
09:01really spend time together away from the field or away from the facility.
09:06Robert spent a lot of time with both men.
09:09He spent a lot of time with Bill.
09:11He spent a lot of time with Tom.
09:12Now, Bill, it was mostly business.
09:15Tom it was both business and a lot of personal.
09:18And he he understood both men very, very well.
09:21And he was able to meet the needs that Bill had to keep Bill there and meet the needs
09:27of Tom to keep Tom there.
09:29And especially toward the end.
09:31And I'm talking about when we get to the point where the Eagles beat the Patriots in early
09:352018 in that Super Bowl, when it it looked like everything was was blowing apart.
09:42That's that year in particular, Robert really invested himself in keeping Bill and Tom together.
09:50There were lots of conversations, lots of meetings and finding out, you know, just how
09:54to broker the needs of both men to keep them together for as long as possible.
10:00I liken it to like having, you know, John Lennon and Paul McCartney on your payroll.
10:06They're the two biggest stars in the music industry.
10:09And they're on the same stage.
10:11And it's hard to keep them there because when you have a star that big, the light needs
10:15to usually be on the star, not two stars.
10:18And the Patriots had the two biggest stars in the NFL on their payroll.
10:22They had the coach and they had the quarterback, both of whom are looked at as kind of the
10:26greatest of all time.
10:28It's not easy keeping those two people on the payroll for that long.
10:33What the owner does behind the scenes, it's the opposite of Jerry Jones.
10:37It's all behind the scenes.
10:39It's not in front of the microphone.
10:41That's what made this work.
10:44Is that where Jerry Jones goes wrong?
10:46Well, it's a totally different style of leadership.
10:51And I think you just have to look at the records.
10:54They both came into the NFL at almost the same time.
10:57Jerry came in first, obviously, at the end of the 80s.
11:00And he won those Super Bowls in the early 90s.
11:03And then Robert comes in and buys the Patriots.
11:06And since Robert has come in, Dallas has never won a Super Bowl.
11:11They haven't even, you know, they haven't even been back.
11:15And I think that the management leadership style of the two men, to me, is fascinating
11:19because it's so different.
11:22And the results have been very different.
11:24Yeah, the Cowboys haven't been back to an NFC championship game in 30 years.
11:29I can't help but ask, if the Beatles had a Bob Craft, how would music history be altered?
11:34Some might not even remember that they were only together 10 years.
11:38Less than 10.
11:39Less than 10.
11:40Yeah, I mean, one time I interviewed him in his apartment in New York.
11:43And he stayed in the, he has an apartment in the building that the Beatles stayed in
11:47when they first came to America to be on The Ed Sullivan Show.
11:51And he had a couple of autographed pictures by the Beatles hanging up in there.
11:55It just got me thinking, and I actually kind of half jokingly said to him that if they
12:00had had somebody like that in the late 60s, as we went into 1970, who could have worked
12:07with both artists, who knows, right?
12:10And it's a shame that that didn't happen.
12:12It really is.
12:13I mentioned you wrote about some other bestsellers and some of the most impactful, arguably the
12:18two other three most impactful athletes of our generation, LeBron James and Tiger Woods.
12:24You mentioned a common thread in how LeBron and Brady take care of their bodies.
12:28But in terms of those three, Brady, Tiger, LeBron, is there a common thread in true greatness?
12:36Is it, is in their preparation, is in their mind?
12:39Yeah.
12:40A lot of it's mental.
12:42I mean, look, anybody who makes it into the NFL or the NBA is a phenomenal athlete.
12:48Phenomenal athlete.
12:49Like the guys on the end of the bench are phenomenal athletes.
12:53So usually what separates this pool of great athletes is much more mental.
13:00And it has so much more to do with the discipline of the mind.
13:04And I think that Tom and Tiger and LeBron are incredibly disciplined human beings.
13:12And they also have a fire.
13:15Like they don't need to be stoked.
13:17It's really hard when you get to the top of any profession and you conquer it.
13:23I don't care what the business is.
13:24When you conquer it, it's really hard to maintain the kind of motivation that it took you to
13:30get to the top.
13:32That hunger, that drive, that fierce competitiveness.
13:35Once you're at the top and you're literally the best in the world at whatever you do,
13:40maintaining that kind of drive over years is incredibly difficult.
13:44When you look at Tiger and LeBron and Tom Brady, you're looking at three people who
13:50happen to be athletes who possess the kind of drive you can't coach.
13:56That makes them want to get up at the end of every season or tournament or game and
14:01do it again, despite the fact that they're aging and they're competing against people
14:05every year that are younger and younger and younger than they are.
14:10That takes something different.
14:12That's not about athleticism.
14:14That's about something going on in here.
14:18Brady won his fourth Super Bowl at 37.
14:20Mahomes would be 29 if he wins on Sunday.
14:24What is the one element that will determine his greatness ultimately, his staying power?
14:30Well, football is a dangerous game.
14:35It's a very physical game.
14:36Let's keep in mind, Tom Brady wins three Super Bowls in four years, then has an undefeated
14:4216-0 season and loses to the Giants because of the helmet catch.
14:48Remember what happened the next game that Tom played in as the season opener after losing
14:52to the Giants.
14:54First game, ironically, against the Chiefs, he gets hit low and blows his knee out and
14:58doesn't play for the rest of the season.
15:01He missed the whole 208 season.
15:03And honestly, if you look at history, it's kind of uncanny that he came back.
15:10And think about how much longer he played for.
15:13After missing the 208 season, he comes back in 209, doesn't win another Super Bowl until
15:19they beat the Seahawks in 14, then the Falcons, then the Rams, then goes to Tampa Bay and
15:25wins again.
15:26I think for Patrick, it's a matter of how long can he stay healthy?
15:30How long can he play at the level he plays at now?
15:33Him and Josh Allen, they run a lot.
15:35They do things that Tom rarely left the pocket.
15:39These two guys run around.
15:40They take a lot of hits.
15:42Mahomes gets hit a lot, and he's not a big guy.
15:45I mean, he's not Peyton Manning.
15:48So I think a lot of it will have to do with his ability to remain healthy for another
15:5510, 12, 15 years.
15:58And his ability to stay hungry when he's got 500 mil in the bank.
16:01Final question, it's an obvious one.
16:03Who wins on Sunday?
16:06Who knows?
16:07I don't like to make predictions.
16:08But I mean, personally, I'd like to see the Eagles do it for a number of reasons.
16:15So we'll see.
16:16I can't believe I'm rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles, but I am this week.
16:20One stat that doesn't make sense, Mahomes is 15-0 in domes.
16:25That's just unfathomable.
16:27The book is Dynasty.
16:28He also wrote 16 other bestsellers.
16:31He's an Emmy-winning producer as well.
16:33Jeff Benedict, great pleasure having you, sir.
16:36It was my pleasure.