Sports Business Digest » The greatest day in the history of Football Television

The greatest day in the history of Football Television

Posted on May 14th, 2009. Written by Emmett Jones.

It is official. Arguably the greatest premium cable channel network, HBO, has teamed with the most awesomely jailed team in NFL history, the Cincinnati Bengals, to create the third iteration of what will become the greatest football series in the history of television, Hard Knocks.

HBO announced Thursday during a press conference at Paul Brown Stadium that the Bengals will be this year’s team for the five-week “Hard Knocks: Training Camp.” series.

The first episode will premiere Aug. 12 at 10 p.m. on the network and will run through Sept. 9.

Bengals coach Marvin Lewis has experience with the series. He was the defensive coordinator with the Ravens during the first year. Others who have appeared are defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer, defensive end Tank Johnson and safety Roy Williams.

The series will be five one-hour episodes, starting from the time players leave their families until the final roster cutdown.

A 24-person crew from NFL Films will shoot the series and will have more than 700 hours of footage. The crew will be given all access to the players’ and coaches’ meeting rooms, training rooms, dormitories and practice fields at Georgetown College and PBS.

700 hours of footage. Seven. Hundred. Hours. They have to catch at least one felony, right? or maybe a misdemeanor or two? I sincerely hope that HBO doesn’t edit out the good stuff. Hard Knocks is about an inside look at the team and the players; and i want every DUI arrest captured on film…for posterity.

All jokes aside though, this is really a great opportunity for the Bengals, and a savvy move by Bengals higher-ups to present the team in a better light. Humanizing players, that the casual fan thinks are “above the law”, should go a long way towards changing public perception. And HBO’s 5 hour mini-series should accomplish this goal, even if the show does focus primarily on rookies and those fighting to make the team. So…change public perception, possibly gain some fans, strengthen a weakened brand, and sell some more Bengals merchandise? Nice move Bengals, nice move.

Now lets just hope that everyone is on their best behavior.

Cincinnati Enquirer — ‘Hard Knocks’ taps Bengals

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.