Home 2014 Steelers Offseason Steelers to Appear on ‘Hard Knocks?’

Steelers to Appear on ‘Hard Knocks?’

by Steeldad

HBOAs it often can be, Twitter was abuzz with speculation that the Pittsburgh Steelers would be selected to appear on HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks.’

If you aren’t familiar, this is where cameras follow players and coaches through training camp and there is little left to the imagination. Just ask the New York Jets.

All teams are eligible to appear with the following exceptions; they have a first year head coach, teams that have made the playoffs in one of the last two years and those who have been on the show in the last ten years.

That means the Steelers are eligible along with Arizona, Chicago, Buffalo, Jacksonville, St. Louis, New York Giants and Oakland Raiders.

A team can volunteer but the last two seasons have seen the decision come right down to the wire and the NFL will likely want to avoid that.

Personally, I want absolutely nothing to do with this. As has been proven on the series with teams like the aforementioned Jets, the Cowboys and the Bengals, very little comes out of a positive nature.

The Steelers are coming off back to back 8-8 seasons and are likely to have many new faces in 2014. Having cameras and microphones in those faces does nothing for me except keep me up at night.

Although HBO and the NFL would love to see the Steelers on the show because of the ratings, I can’t imagine it would be very entertaining. Can you imagine Mike Tomlin?

It would be like a 24/7 press conference with him. The number of times he would say ‘obviously’ would probably result in a death from a drinking game or sheer boredom.

I am imploring the NFL to consider someone else for Hard Knocks. If not for the Steelers sake then how about my own?

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 730pm ET talking Steelers and is a blogger for ESPN 970 in Pittsburgh.

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2 comments

steelbydesign January 21, 2014 - 2:31 pm

Let me start out by saying I’m a huge fan of the show. It was must watch for me this past season, in part because I’m in Cincy and the Bengals are probably the team I’m most knowledgeable about other than the Steelers.

But I think for all the 24 hour news outlets, and people like me blogging, and the football obsession everywhere… The players’ lives and personalities is something you rarely see. I recently read about Peyton Manning’s wife talking him into not retiring and signing with Denver… and I had no idea he was even married! The Cam Heyward mic’d up video from Steelers.com a couple weeks ago was great. So that side for me is fascinating (especially stories of the guys that aren’t stars, fighting for a roster spot).

So if the Steelers were on the show, I’d be pretty pumped… but I know you’re right, for football reasons it’s not a good thing.

Now… The Steelers would probably get the biggest draw of all the teams you mentioned, but I still see it as a long shot.

The Rooney’s care about winning. Mike Brown cares about his bottom line. Hard Knocks makes him money, and that’s why he did it. If Rooney doesn’t want HBO there, then I don’t think it happens.

Maybe this is arrogant of me, but I think that the Rooney family has more pull than most owners in the NFL. Plenty of fans from other teams whined about a double standard when the situation came up of the other Rooney bros. selling their shares of the team (because they had money in gambling). The NFL basically looked the other way for some time while Art II got things in order for him to continue to hold majority ownership.

While Roger and the Steelers have butted heads mostly on player safety issues, I still think that the Rooney family has as much, if not more, pull than any ownership in the league. I could see Hard Knocks not going to the Giants for the same reason… The Mara family and Tom Coughlin would want no part of that.

Not to mention Mike Tomlin could basically threaten to tell his team to basically go silent around the cameras, walk away, etc. James Harrison did it last season.

You could be right. In the end, there’s nothing the Steelers could do, but I see the Rooney’s kicking and screaming enough that they decide to go elsewhere.

Blkandgold4life January 21, 2014 - 3:44 pm

Im cool with it..don’t think it would hurt or help one way or the other..But SteelByDesign is right..if Rooney doesn’t want it..it wont happen..the man is like a Mafia Don of the NFL

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