“Hard Knocks” On The Horizon?
January 26th, 2014
In a way, it’s a shame HBO couldn’t have forced itself on the Bucs for its “Hard Knocks” annual series of hanging out inside an NFL team’s training camp for rarely seen behind-the-scenes information.
With Chucky and Bruce Almighty running things, Nancy Pelosi had a better chance of joining the John Birch Society than those two had of letting NFL Films crews have access to everything. The chance to have Warren Sapp, John Lynch, Keyshawn Johnson, Booger McFarland and Chucky mic’ed up would have made for priceless television.
NFL coaches have become so paranoid of having cameras everywhere that it has gotten to the point that the NFL can all but force a team to participate in the wildly-popular late-summer series. And it is the belief of Woody Cummings of the Tampa Tribune the Bucs could be that team, if they don’t make the playoffs soon, since the Bucs have never been the subject of “Hard Knocks.”
Though the league can force a team to subject itself to HBO’s invasion of privacy, there are three criteria that exempt a team from such scrutiny and the presence of a new head coach is one of them.
There are also exemptions for teams that have been in the playoffs in one of the two previous seasons and for any team that has appeared on the show in the last 10 years.
Since the Bucs have never been on the show, it would behoove them to make the playoffs in 2014, particularly if their wish is to remain out of the eye of HBO cameras. That will make them exempt next year, as well.
Sometimes, Joe thinks that NFL — and football coaches as a whole — are beyond paranoid. Look, this is football, it’s not like coaches are building a football version of the Manhattan Project. Football, at its core, is really all about blocking and tackling.
Former Bucs commander Greg Schiano was one of those who believed One Buc Palace was a southern version of Langley. How’d that work out? Scott Pioli tried to turn Kansas City into a Midwestern headquarters of naval intelligence and it blew up in his face.
Teams that had subpar seasons after being featured on “Hard Knocks” missed the playoffs not because NFL Films was everywhere in the summer, but because the teams stunk. It’s really no more complex than that.
January 26th, 2014 at 9:16 am
That’s funny about Schiano turning the Bucs into CIA South. The funniest thing is that Schiano didn’t have to have anything shrouded in secrecy. His offense couldn’t have been more predictable if the defense was also in the huddle…and his defense…forget about predictability, who could predict how had our defensive alignments and assignments would be from one play to the next, the entire scheme for the most part was assignment unsound. Any undercover information gathered about that horrid defensive scheme would’ve likely been thrown out with the garbage the next morning.
Of course Lovie’s defense will be far more predictable…but most importantly, it will be assignment sound, the alignments will make sense, it’s a new era of Buccaneer football. I’m excited.
January 26th, 2014 at 9:26 am
@Brandon
Sad, but true
January 26th, 2014 at 9:45 am
I hope Dominik left a copy of his “Rockstars ingenious guide to the NFL Draft” book behind for these mortal souls to follow.
January 26th, 2014 at 10:00 am
Hard Knocks is beyond played out. They should just let that show die a peaceful death.
January 26th, 2014 at 10:00 am
“Hard Knocks”……starring Dashon Goldson….
January 26th, 2014 at 10:04 am
I would rather have seen the Hard Knocks the Rah/Dom Era. On for the play on the field, but for the Play off the field. During the day they would have filmed JFro asleep in meetings, Winslow with head-phones not listening to a thing, T-Jax so chiefed-up he does not know where he is. Then 5:00 hits and its 53 Fred Flinstones running out of there to start the Party. Now that I would have watched.
January 26th, 2014 at 10:07 am
New coaches have two years of exemptions, so the point is moot.
January 26th, 2014 at 10:16 am
So true Bucs Realist. We probably wouldn’t have had to suffer through as many painful games with Freeman when they saw how hungover he’d come in every morning
January 26th, 2014 at 10:22 am
@BuccaneerBonzai It’s not entirely moot. The exemption only applies to having the show forced upon a team. An exempt team can still “volunteer”. Just like how players go to “voluntary” workouts 🙂
January 26th, 2014 at 11:24 am
Being featured on Hard Knocks is a curse. Not one single team after being subjected to this invasion has ever made the playoffs. Joe says those teams stunk. Yes, after they were featured but some of those teams had a decent season the year before and were going to make a push for the playoffs only to be distracted before the season began with NFL films catching players and coaches picking their noses all summer long.
January 26th, 2014 at 11:33 am
Hard Knocks is a distraction that no team needs or should be subjected to.
January 26th, 2014 at 11:41 am
@the_buc_realist.
That’s pretty dam funny and I would have watched that for sure. Maybe there would be a camera in the parking lot showing T jax showing up but you can’t see inside for all the smoke
January 26th, 2014 at 12:05 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQRN3OnVttQ
January 26th, 2014 at 12:24 pm
if they must show hard knocks theres no team i’d rather have on tv than my bucs, we know what lovie is all about but now we know why schiano was so secretive about his game plans and thats because he didnt have much of a gameplan to begin with so giving away just a few secrets would be essentially giving away all he knew
lovie smith is a different animal im hoping for those days that we just line up and bust you in the mouth like we used to, if we are gonna be run dominant team that plays great defense then there’s not much that we could give away as far as a competitive standpoint and being that we dont have a true #1 quarterback i think we will continue to be run heavy and thank god they will be run heavy without running dougie fresh into the ground like a race horse
January 26th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Congrats to Dennis Hickey on getting the Dolphins GM job. Be interesting to see who Licht hires to replace him.
January 26th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Why won’t this show just go away? Its not the most interesting or compelling “reality” TV show. If I want to kill an hour I’d rather watch A Football Life. Obviously no team wants to do it the NFL has to force the show on an organization. Oh well…
January 26th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
dennis hickey hired as dolphins’ gm.
January 26th, 2014 at 1:10 pm
I believe every team will have a “Hard Knocks” program soon.
The NFL is ever expanding.
Schiano would never had existed if the fans knew the real story.
January 26th, 2014 at 1:25 pm
lurker….I’ve never met Dennis Hickey or even seen what he looks like. Is he a nice guy?
January 26th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
I think the loser of the Superbowl should get Hard Knocks.
January 26th, 2014 at 6:21 pm
I don’t see any coach touching Hard Knocks
January 26th, 2014 at 10:48 pm
Ummm… The Bengals made the playoffs this year.
January 27th, 2014 at 9:22 pm
I’d rather watch Womens Volleyball then Hard Knocks. Wouldn’t we all? 😉