“Folks will speak to me on Tuesday nights and say, ‘That was a fantastic present. What’s going to be on subsequent week?’” Rodgers mentioned. “And I say, I do not know, it hasn’t occurred but.”
Sabol used to say that making the present was akin to constructing an airplane in flight, however there’s a rhythm to Exhausting Knocks that has made it much less daunting than different docuseries of its ilk. Rodgers mentioned every version of the sequence has a “clear starting, center, and finish” that dovetails with the NFL’s preseason schedule: Gamers report back to camp, go well with up for a number of meaningless video games, and look ahead to the ultimate 53-man roster to be introduced. Exhausting Knocks has additionally developed a routine that may, at occasions, veer into sameness.
Rodgers mentioned that he and his workforce “battle to make it possible for familiarity doesn’t flip into staleness.” He compares Exhausting Knocks to Survivor, a reality-TV up to date that premiered in 2000 and stays a fixture on CBS’s lineup. Each exhibits, Rodgers mentioned, are “acquainted and contemporary,” combining a well-recognized template with new characters. (Survivor has had many seasons that includes previous contestants, however the level is taken.)
However like an precise NFL workforce, the success of any Exhausting Knocks season usually comes right down to the gamers and coaches who’re on it. The 2010 version of the present additionally featured the Jets, and stands out as the most effective within the sequence, not least due to then head coach Rex Ryan’s indelible sound chew: “Let’s go eat a goddamn snack!” Final summer time’s Exhausting Knocks with the Detroit Lions was principally well-received, notably for the appearances of its swashbuckling head coach, Dan Campbell.
However even with colourful personalities like Ryan or Campbell concerned, the present doesn’t get too spicy. Exhausting Knocks is a property of the NFL, in spite of everything, and the league is militant with regards to defending its model. To some, that has made the present into “infomercial fluff,” as a author for the Detroit Free-Press put it in a evaluate of Exhausting Knocks final yr.
Rodgers mentioned collaborating groups are capable of display screen every episode earlier than it airs, however that’s principally to make sure that it consists of no revealing particulars about play calls. “We don’t attempt to spin issues to make individuals look worse, and we don’t even spin issues to make individuals look higher,” Rodgers mentioned. “We didn’t say final yr how nice of a coach Dan Campbell is or how nice of a pacesetter [he is]. We simply confirmed him for who he was and other people determined, by watching him, how nice he was.”
Head coach Brian Billick of the Baltimore Ravens talks to his workforce throughout a recreation towards the the New York Giants, December 12, 2004.Doug Pensinger/Getty Photographs.
Conventional TV scores for Exhausting Knocks have dropped lately. However Rodgers mentioned these numbers don’t seize how a lot of the present’s viewers has migrated to the streaming-verse. In keeping with Rodgers, a a lot increased share of viewers watch Exhausting Knocks on Max than on linear HBO. “Our viewers is simply as sturdy because it was [during] the increase years,” he instructed me.
Billick, for his half, mentioned he hasn’t stored up with the sequence. “I feel we did set the template they usually appear to be only a repeat of what we did,” he mentioned. Billick stopped teaching within the NFL following the 2007 common season, virtually six years earlier than the league authorised the Exhausting Knocks mandate. Again when he was main the Ravens, Billick had a go-to response when the NFL tried to drive groups to do sure issues: “Effectively, does Invoice need to do it?”
By “Invoice,” he means Invoice Belichick, the immortal (and imposing) coach of the New England Patriots.
“They’ll say, ‘Effectively, the league can mandate it,’ however till they make New England and Invoice Belichick do it, then no, they’re not making anyone do it,” Billick mentioned.
The Patriots have been exempt from Exhausting Knocks because of the workforce’s constant postseason appearances within the Belichick and Tom Brady period. However Belichick has opened his doorways to a movie crew earlier than. He was mic’d up for the 2009 season, which was documented by NFL Movies for the primary two episodes of its long-running sequence, A Soccer Life.
“When individuals say it’ll by no means occur, I say, nicely, it’s already occurred,” Rodgers mentioned of Belichick.
We could discover out sooner somewhat than later. If Belichick have been to fall in need of the playoffs for the second season in a row, the Patriots could be out of exemptions and, probably, on the brief listing for the present subsequent summer time.
Exhausting Knocks: New England? I’d watch.
