A summer tradition begins every August and goes right through Labor Day. The days get a little cooler, you get a little tired of baseball, and you’re feeling a little bit ready for football season.
One of the best ways to get a taste of football has been “Hard Knocks” on HBO. Seeing practice, hearing the pads and whistles, and following a random NFL team’s training camp used to be the main way to dip your toes into football season.
Now instead of a late summer rite of passage, the show has become something to pass on.
Oversaturation is mainly to blame for “Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Buffalo Bills” not hitting like it used to. Nowadays, fans can see their own favorite football team post videos from training camp on social media daily. Basically every preseason game is on local tv, or even broadcast live or on replay on NFL Network. The Patriots have released three episodes of “Forged in Foxborough” on their social media channels, a barely different than “Hard Knocks” production.
Even just for a football fix, college football teams not only post practice videos on socials, but also have their own versions of “Hard Knocks.” The Oregon football team has released their own the last two Augusts on YouTube. North Carolina has posted two episodes of a made-for-YouTube show, and after their opener against TCU, maybe two episodes is enough.
It’s not just the amount of football practice videos out there, but it also seems that even HBO is on autopilot when making the show. “Hard Knocks” used to feel like “The Blueprint” or “The Black Album.” Now it feels like the producers put as much thought and effort as Jay-Z did on “Magna Carta Holy Grail.” The intro for each “Hard Knocks” episode used to showcase the franchise and city. The Bills, with their unique football history taking place in a one-of-a-kind sports city, deserved better than just practice and fan shots. “Hard Knocks” created some of the oversaturation itself, having an offseason show last year and adding in-season shows the last few years.
It’s all too much and, at the same time, not enough. Each episode used to delve deeper into more personal stories. You actually cared who got cut. Now some of the “interview” clips aren’t HBO exclusives, they are from press conferences.
And perhaps this is just a pet peeve of this author, but NFL coaches, and football coach fashion in general, is at an all-time low. This makes coach scenes where they are wearing drab, non-team colors as distinctive as a guardian cap covering a helmet. (Yes, I do support guardian caps for player safety, but put team logos and colors on them).
The show’s welcome release has turned into a relief when it ends. “Hard Knocks” has become hard to watch and easy to knock.
