Hard Knock life for Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals held a press conference today making it official (although it was widely known in the football world for weeks now) that they will be the next subject of the HBO series Hard Knocks. I am kind of surprised of this.

The Bengals are one of those teams that everyone picks each year to do something and make a run in the playoffs. Of course, they have had their chances in the past, but the recent Bengals are known for the antics of players like Chris Henry and Chad Ochocinco. It is brilliant for HBO and NFL Films to go in there en exploit those antics for the next season of Hard Knocks. I am just surprised any NFL team would allow the access that the camera crews need to get the shots they want for a show. When you have guys trying to make a squad, it adds a circus-like element to training camp to have a number of different camera crews following guys around (I think the number is 7 or so).

It will definitely be interesting to watch. Last year, the Dallas Cowboys were featured on the 5 week show, and while it was nice to watch, it was not wildly entertaining like years past. Fans fell in love with the likes of Danny Amedola, the long shot receiver from Texas Tech (who ended up on the Eagles practice squad) and Todd Lowber, the receiver who never played football until he graduated college. We even sat on the edge of our seat to see if Ray Lewis' brother would make it on the team. And who could ever forget the opening scene of the first episode when we were introduced to a chiseled Terrell Owens running on the beach? These were the main stories of the season last year for Hard Knocks, and to be honest, it was a little boring. The Cowboys are a world class organization and they would not allow any kind of embarrassing material happen during camp that would be shown on the show. Not taking anything away from the Bengals, but hopefully this year will show a little more intrigue. I am surprised any NFL team would even be interested in allowing this kind of access. Especially a young team that should be "on the rise" trying to rebound after a tough year.

Going back to the following years of the show, the Kansas City Chiefs were featured in 2007. Head coach Herm Edwards and GM Carl Peterson allowed for a lot more access on this season, and I believe it was right up there with the best of the series so far. In 2004, the Jacksonville Jaguars were the subject of the show and I can't say I saw any of it. It was broadcast on the NFL Network and that's one channel I do not get here. Of course, the first Hard Knocks was the 2001 defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. And by far, the most entertaining season of the series came in 2002 when the Dallas Cowboys were featured for the first time. It was 55 minutes of hilarity watching the head coach, Dave Campo (who is now the secondary coach for the Cowboys and had a predominant role in an episode last year) interact with his players. And who couldn't help be laugh when they saw an interview with QB Qunicy Carter (whatever happened to him??)

Anyway, I don't expect this season to live up to that 2002 Cowboys, but it should be a definite improvement over the 2008 Cowboys. I can't wait to see what Ochocinco has in store for the show. It will also be interesting what kinds of storylines the NFL Films crews look for (the Bengals have a lot of players named Jones and Johnson; this will be S Roy Williams 3 Hard Knocks; etc.). One reason to start counting down the days till training camp.