When the NFL announced that the Chicago Bears would be the subject of the 2024 season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, most fans seemed pretty excited. But some fans sang the company line: “The Bears have a rookie quarterback, the last thing they need is the distraction of Hard Knocks.”
I’m here to tell you a little secret: it isn’t.
NFL owners and general managers have shouted the distraction narrative from the rooftops to anyone who would listen. The fact of the matter is, NFL teams would rather skip Hard Knocks, that’s true, but it has nothing to do with distracting the coaches and players as they prepare for the season.
The distraction narrative is a great one for teams. If teams are distracted during training camp, that will lead to fewer wins during the season. That’s one way to get the fans behind you and have them publicly support the idea that they want Hard Knocks to bother a different franchise. That narrative has worked out well for many teams.
The fact is, most teams don’t want HBO’s cameras around their practice facility because they don’t want the obligation and they aren’t interested in letting fans see how the sausage is made.
The problem is this idea of the extra media obligation was a holdover from yesteryear when there were only three traditional media outlets: print, radio, and television.
This is a whole new world where media is integrated more into all of our lives. Those original outlets exist, but they also run concurrently with websites, YouTube, podcasts, social media, and several other avenues of communication.
You can find plenty of teams complaining about Hard Knocks or discussing the distraction aspect, but find me some quotes after the team participated parroting those same lines. They are hard to find. At this point in his life, Aaron Rodgers doesn’t care what you think. He speaks his mind. He doesn’t care if he insults his coach, his general manager, or the general public. Rodgers stated many times how little interest he had in participating in Hard Knocks and was annoyed the cameras would be there, but after Hard Knocks concluded, Aaron Rodgers admitted he was wrong and said that it wasn’t a distraction at all. That’s right, Aaron Rodgers actually admitted he was wrong, I can’t think of another time where that happened.
In 2019, Mark Davis shouted that Hard Knocks would be a distraction for the Raiders, but after it was all said it done, the coaching staff said it wasn’t at all. Defensive Coordinator Paul Guenther even stated that he forgot the cameras were even around by the fourth or fifth day (not week, day).
Coaches and players routinely state after the cameras leave that it wasn’t nearly as bad as they thought it would be.
The bottom line is that Hard Knocks is important to the NFL. The league wants this show to exist. At this point, they’ve changed the rules to add more eligible teams each year, and they’ve even added that the in-season Hard Knocks will now focus on an entire division and they’ve added an offseason Hard Knocks, this year it will feature the New York Giants.
In the past, Hard Knocks has rarely featured the major NFL teams. Sure, the Dallas Cowboys love publicity and volunteered, but you didn’t see teams like the Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, San Francisco 49ers, Green Bay Packers, or Pittsburgh Steelers on the show. That’s all changing.
The New York Jets screamed that they didn’t want it for months, but in the end, the NFL said, too bad, you’re eligible, and it’s happening. George McCaskey has shouted for a decade that he didn’t want those cameras at Halas Hall, but they will be arriving in mid-July. The NFL has told these major market teams and classic franchises that they no longer will get a free pass: they’ll be featured on Hard Knocks.
But relax fans, if you are an anti-Hard Knocks person and you believe in the distraction or how the team may be portrayed, fear not.
First of all, teams always receive an advance copy of the episode at least 36 hours before the episode airs. All members of the Bears communications staff, as well as coaches and front office execs, can take a look at the episode and can tell HBO to make changes that they see fit. No, they aren’t going to discuss production elements, but if they don’t like a portrayal or if HBO accidentally is sharing something that shouldn’t be public (a player feud, coach criticism, or general information about their playbook or scheme), the team can tell them that it needs to be cut.
It also should be known that no players are forced to participate in Hard Knocks. If a player doesn’t want to be featured, the league or HBO won’t force it. So while players aren’t forced, the fact is that most agents encourage their players to participate in the show because it does nothing but improve their Q-rating with the public.
HBO is not an adversary at training camp, they can be an asset. They can be a public relations vehicle for the team and can boost the team’s popularity among NFL fans. With all the media obligations that players and coaches have these days, the added obligation of Hard Knocks is so minimal that it rarely makes an impact, and for some players, it’s an opportunity they can embrace and show the fans who they are.
The first episode of Hard Knocks featuring the Chicago Bears will air on August 6th. There will be plenty in that episode, you’ll see how Matt Eberflus interacts with his players, you’ll get plenty of Caleb Williams, and you’ll love the features that they do on some of the other players. George McCaskey may not be happy, but he will learn, just like so many have in the past, that Hard Knocks is many things, but the one thing it is not, is a distraction.