Hard Knocks In Shambles As Nobody Wants To Do It, But Four Teams Have No Choice

Hard Knocks -- an NFL summer staple for the better part of two decades -- can't find any takers with training camp just over a month away.

The once-popular HBO show -- I say once because, well, nobody wants to be on it anymore -- apparently even asked the Detroit Lions to come back for a second straight season.

According to the Detroit News, the Fighting Dan Campbells said no way, José, leaving the show in limbo with time ticking away.

Someone get Liev Schreiber on the phone, STAT!

Give me the New York Jets on Hard Knocks all day

Chills. Every single time.

There is no better intro than Hard Knocks. Sorry, that's not opinion or hyperbole. That's fact. The first Hard Knocks intro of the year is the unofficial beginning of fall. Of football season. Of pure joy.

I don't care if you don't wanna do it, someone step the hell up to the plate NOW and get this done.

Well, hang on. Good news! Four teams apparently have no choice in the matter. Sorry, losers!

For those who don't know the nuts and bolts of the league, the NFL can force a team to participate in the show if they haven’t met any of the following criteria:

Spinning the NFL wheel here in June, that leaves us with the following (terrible, based on the above criteria) organizations: Bears, Saints, Jets and Commanders.

We all know where this is going, right? It's pretty damn obvious.

Welcome to Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets!

I mean, right? If the NFL has the power to make a team to it, and those are the options, how do you not take Aaron Rodgers talking shrooms and Zach Wilson's mom? Seems way too simple to me.

The Saints have Derek Carr now, and we don't need more Derek Carr on Hard Knocks. The Commanders would be sort of interesting I guess with the Dan Snyder saga, but I doubt we'll get any of that. The Bears are ... the Bears. I think we're good on them, too.

So give me the Jets all day and twice on Tuesdays at 10 p.m., baby!

Let's go get a damn snack!

PS: the intro to the Chargers/Rams season is lowkey one of the best of the series. The pure shock when Anthony Lynn tells everyone he had COVID is hilarious watching it back. Joey Bosa was SHOOK.

Written by
Zach grew up in Florida, lives in Florida, and will never leave Florida ... for obvious reasons. He's a reigning fantasy football league champion, knows everything there is to know about NASCAR, and once passed out (briefly!) during a lap around Daytona. He swears they were going 200 mph even though they clearly were not.