'Forged in Foxborough: Episode 4' Puts a Ribbon on an Unforgettable Season
With everything that's transpired over the past six months, it's easy to forget that the Patriots started an in-house documentary series last spring that had it's third and final episode just as the regular season kicked off. And the good news is Kraft Productions cameras never stopped rolling on what turned out to be - all things considered - one of the truly great seasons in the history of the franchise.
There might not be a more overused word in the English language today than "historic." (Unless it's "fiancee." C'mon, guy. You knocked her up. Until you've been to Kay Jewelers, picked out a menu and decided if you're going with a band or a DJ, you don't get to hide behind that term. But I digress.) You can't hand a gold statuette to some actress or singer without hearing how it's history in the making, like she just led Lewis and Clark through the Lehmi Pass. But when a team goes from back-to-back 4-13 seasons to the Super Bowl, that is football history being made. That happens maybe once in a generation, if that.
And so, with all this source to work with, it's not hard to believe that what Kraft Productions was able to capture on film and edit down to an hour is pure, Grade A, top quality, couples appeal Patriots Porn. The likes of which we haven't seen in these parts since the Super Bowl LIII season produced 3 Games to Glory III and Do Your Job 3.
A full hour is a long time to spent on this blog. But I hope you will, because my beer fridge can't stock itself. Still, as a public service here are the chapters in case you want to skip around:
00:00 - Winning Culture Defined
4:16 - Playoff Berth Clinched
8:15 - Unfinished Business
12:30 - AFC East Champs
19:58 - Big Dogs Come Out In January
32:39 - Divisional Round Battle
49:52 - Mile High Championship
1:09:31 - Super Prep
1:13:00 - Opening Night
1:14:22 - Family Dinner
1:20:17 - Super Bowl
LX 1:29:50 - The Future Is Bright
Right from the beginning, the film establishes just how far the 2025 Patriots came, and how fast. Opening with that Week 3 game against the Steelers was a brilliant move. Perhaps the best establishing sequence in a film since Henry Hill slammed the trunk down on a Pontiac Grand Prix and said, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." Rhamondre Stevenson's fumble problems that kicked away a game the Pats should've won, when Gillette had been taken over by a foreign fan base yet again, and dropped them to 1-2, made this season feel exactly like the last three.
But Mike Vrabel's postgame speech said it all. It's unheard of for Pats fans to ever get a look inside at losing locker room. But the coach's message about how they've all got to sit there as a family and eat this shit together resonated. Marcus Jones' punt return against Carolina the following week was the spark that lit the fuse of a 10-game winning streak. The highlight of which was the last-second win at Buffalo, when Drake Maye captained a 7-play, 37-yard drive and Andy Borregales drilled the 52-yard game winner. If I find myself in a moment of existential angst this summer (and I don't know why I would), I'm putting this on to the 2:00 mark and watch the reaction in the locker room to what turned out to very much be a statement win by a team that was still figuring out who they were.
The rest I leave to you. But let me suggest a few moments like the first meeting of Wild Card week, (the 17:00 mark) when Vrabel is asking who in the meeting room was still playing football at that time last year. And the answer was Milton Williams and ... that's it. Only him. And the coach turns that into a chance to talk about getting opportunities and making the most of them.
There's also this bit about joining the Mile High Club, which in this context, is way more erotic than doing anything in a smelly closet leaning over a toilet:
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And I particularly like the little bits of human comedy, like TreVeyon Henderson treating a Shirley Temple like someone was handing him the punch at a Frat Party:
All of it a reminder that those last four quarters of the season, painful though they were to watch and relive, do not define the 2025 Pats or the year they had. Forged in Foxborough: E4 does. They don't deserve the NFL Films treatment; the Seahawks and Seahawks alone earned that. But they deserve something. And this is it. The last episode of Season 1 of a series that will eventually lead to their own Super Bowl champions film. I promise you.