“So Let’s Get To The Playoffs”
October 9th, 2013
Fans love the HBO series “Hard Knocks,” which annually chronicles a team’s training camp with fantastic access to behind-the-scenes information that no one short of a team employee has. It is riveting TV.
But coaches, specifically NFL head coaches, largely despise the access given to NFL Films/HBO. Mostly, NFL coaches are secretive creatures by nature who believe the NFL is akin to Enigma, and that the free world would crumble before their very eyes if a rogue, leftist nation gained information from their inner circles.
Yes, it is foolish, if not childish, but that’s the DNA of football coaches.
Paranoia runs deep in the NFL.
This is why so many teams have never been the subject of a “Hard Knocks” series, and so many other teams simply refuse to even consider such an enterprise.
That may be ending soon. Tired of begging teams to open their secret back rooms to NFL Films, the NFL passed a resolution at their recent owners meetings that the league can force a team to host a “Hard Knocks” series, or deal with severe and harsh penalties from the league.
Two criteria that would leave teams exempt from hosting a “Hard Knocks” series would be if a team has made a postseason appearance in either of the previous two seasons, or if a team has a first-year head coach. That means the Bucs could be a candidate if Greg Schiano reaches 2014 in Tampa Bay.
When asked about his reaction to being forced to appear on a “Hard Knocks” series, the controlling Bucs commander Schiano had a simple resolution to such a predicament.
“So let’s get to the playoffs,” Schiano said in his daily press conference today at One Buc Palace.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:22 pm
Other solution would be to have a first year head coach next year….bye bye Schiano
October 9th, 2013 at 3:24 pm
Yep, the NFL sees another nickel to be made. Just like early season Thursday night football when players don’t have their legs yet.
Any LARGE business that has a goal of quadrupling their revenue will try any and all things for revenue. Ultimately they fail to reach their goal and leave scorched earth behind.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:26 pm
Yet colleges don’t seem to have the same issue, and have played Thursday night football games in September for years.
Then again, colleges likely have two-a-days training camps, with pads. That’s no longer the case in the safety-first, football-second NFL.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:28 pm
Thursday Night games do gotta go though. But we’re all suckers and will watch anyway even as though basically only 1 out of every 5 Thursday nighters isn’t a snoozer. That doesn’t mean its good, it just means its not boring.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:29 pm
Good Lord, Roger Goodell makes Obama look like a tea partier.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:35 pm
Pretty sure that they’d only get about a week’s worth of footage before they took off. Between schiano dictating the lenses that were to be used, lighting wattage allowed and rigging the vote on which scenes were chosen they won’t have a chance to get a whole lot
October 9th, 2013 at 3:36 pm
But Joe, colleges usually play on Saturdays. That gives them one more day. My main point is that EARLY season Thursday nights are the worst since they follow a Sunday where they aren’t used to playing a whole game yet.
I will watch almost any football game but those first 3 Thursday games were horrible
But Roger doesn’t care because there is no pending bazillion dollar lawsuit.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:39 pm
Can’t blame Goodell. The owners — not Goodell — passed the resolution.
October 9th, 2013 at 3:58 pm
Ah hell, lets just go ahead and change things up some more…..Pinks style.
Any team that starts out 0-5 and remains below .500 gets to pick a rookie from any team they beat as long as they can afford them under the cap.
Gives more incentive for both teams to play harder and smarter….no tanking for draft picks, and no teams with playoff records sitting their stars right before a playoff run…..just something that ran through my head. Why not? lol
October 9th, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Hey Shiano Haters, were only 3 games out of wild card spot with 12 to play. If your a Rays fan you know that no matter what always believe and Never give up. Only 1 teams has ever made playoffs being 0-4..92 Chargers…Bobby Ross 2nd year as nfl coach, previous year he went 4-12. Im sure Chargers fan wanted him fired too, luckly most fans don’t know nothing about football so they kept him, he turned it around went 11-5 that year and made it to playoffs. Also he is only coach that took them to the superbowl… A little history for my Shiano haters.
October 9th, 2013 at 4:44 pm
@givemeball
So, because the other teams aren’t doing well that gives our coach a pass for losing games that we should’ve won? We’re basing his performance on something that’s entirely out of his control?
October 9th, 2013 at 7:13 pm
If they get to the playoffs, I’ll walk from Hillsborough Avenue to RJS in a leopard thong and give JBF.com readers water balloons to throw at me the whole way.
October 9th, 2013 at 8:47 pm
Playoffs? Playoffs???