Super Bowl star Julian Edelman recently took a stance against his former teammate Wes Welker regarding the portrayal of Bill Belichick in James Rogoway"s “The Dynasty," during a podcast episode.
In the "Games with Names" podcast hosted by Edelman, the former New England Patriots wide receiver voiced his disagreement with Welker"s depiction of Belichick"s coaching methods.
In particular, with how the coach handled incidents involving former player Aaron Hernandez during practice sessions.
“I honestly think if you"re in your 30s and you"ve played football, I don"t think you"ve ever liked your football coach. You loved him. But you didn"t like your football coach," Edelman said. “Just like I didn"t like my parents when they made me do things that they knew was gonna make me a better person. I didn"t like doing it, we didn"t like doing it, work"s not easy, doing the little s— for preparation, doing walkthroughs for walkthroughs for walkthroughs, I hated it. I bitched about it all the time. But we needed it. And that"s why you went into every single game knowing you outprepared that team and you have a shot to win. Every single game."
Slater responded, “maybe there were times that many of us didn"t like Coach. But we always loved and respected him. There was no question about that. We always knew that he was pushing us to be the best version of ourselves — like our parents would."
Edelman insinuated that Welker"s personal bias influenced the narrative presented in the documentary.
He refuted Welker"s account, suggesting personal viewpoints skewed the storyline, painting a picture that largely deviates from his own experiences.
“Welker"s out here saying like Aaron Hernandez got away with murder — figuratively speaking — at practice? That"s not even true!" Edelman said. “Welker painted the picture like [Hernandez] was like the king, like he got to do anything. I remember Bill motherf—— Aaron all the time.
Julian Edelman isn’t happy with Wes Welker for making up stories about Bill Belichick in "The Dynasty," via @NESN
"Welker’s out here saying like Aaron Hernandez got away with murder — figurately speaking — at practice, that’s not even true," Edelman said."
"Welker painted the… https://t.co/RPGHmmLDQU pic.twitter.com/1fDgdOd7LC
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) March 27, 2024
Consequently, Matthew Slater, who also participated in the podcast and played with both Edelman and Welker for the Patriots, kept his lips sealed.
He refrained from fueling the flame or taking sides on the remarks made by Edelman about Welker. Slater’s response was a simple declaration of “love" for Welker.
Edelman responded in kind to Slater"s statement. “I love him, too. But you could tell he clearly despises Bill," Edelman joked.
"Come on, Welk! Trying to make up stories. We know you don"t like Bill. … I love [Welker], too! But you could clearly tell that he hates Bill."
Despite being the Patriots" all-time leader in postseason receptions and receiving yards and ranking third in NFL history in both categories, Edelman"s presence in “The Dynasty" was notably limited.
On the contrary, Slater had more screen time in the docuseries, which also sported him declaring Belichick as hypocritical for endorsing Donald Trump for the presidency after counseling the players to refrain from making non-sport related remarks in public.
“I know there are some comments that I made on there that made it seem like Bill was just this very demanding presence — and he was. But I also want people to see that there are multiple sides of Bill, right?" Slater said. “And it"s tough because I feel like he"s being portrayed in a certain light. And we"re painting a picture, but we"re only showing people part of the picture. With Coach, it"s very complex. And there are things that, you know, were tough, and I"m sure we all feel like, ‘Hey, maybe we wish we had done things this way." But let"s make sure none of us forget the fact that the dynasty is not even being talked about without Bill Belichick. And the things that he did were with intentionality and purpose, and I think he got the best out of all of us."
