The Cincinnati Bengals will be featured on the annual HBO Sports series Hard Knocks later this summer. A 24-person NFL Films crew will set up shop at the Bengals’ training camp site — Georgetown (Kentucky) College — to shoot more than 1,000 hours of exclusive video beginning July 30. There will be a total of five shows, debuting August 12 at 10 p.m. ET.
A lot of teams would consider this type of coverage more of a distraction than anything else, but Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis isn’t one of them:
“I think our football team is beyond that point. I think …read more

National Football League Blogcast, NFL Blogcast
Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Dallas Cowboys debuts tonight on HBO. The first sports-based reality series — and one of the fastest-turnaround reality series — kicks off its fourth season at 10 p.m. ET. Subsequent hour-long episodes air each Wednesday at the same time, culminating in the September 3 season finale, with regular encore plays on Thursdays. HBO playdates for episode one: August 7 (3:30 p.m., midnight), August 8 (11:00 p.m.), August 9 (10:00 a.m., 11:40 p.m.), August 10 (11:30 a.m., 11:15 p.m.) and August 11 (10:30 a.m.). HBO2 playdates for episode one: August …read more

Blogcasting the National Football League, Blogcasting the NFL

The Dallas Cowboys‘ 2008 training camp in Oxnard, CA, will once again be featured as part of the HBO series Hard Knocks. With its reality TV appeal and rare insider access, Hard Knocks has easily been one of my all-time favorite television programs. It has not been a regular series, but NFL Films’ previous work with the Baltimore Ravens (2001) and Cowboys (2002) was brilliant. Sadly, last season’s return (they had mysteriously taken four years off) with the Kansas City Chiefs was forgettable.
Some people can’t miss an episode of Lost. Others wait all …read more

Blogging the National Football League, Blogging the NFL
Some people can’t miss an episode of Survivor. Others wait all week for another dose of Amazing Race. For my money, it just doesn’t get any better than HBO’s NFL reality series Hard Knocks. After a four-year hiatus, the series finally continues with Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs. The previous installments featured the Baltimore Ravens (2001) and Dallas Cowboys (2002) and they were some of the best “insider” television shows covering the NFL I have ever seen. I would literally cancel any plans to see this show. The HBO …read more