Every sports or entertainment program has the goal of creating content that is interesting and revealing enough to get people talking and engaged in their product. Unless of course you are the NFL and it comes to the offseason edition of Hard Knocks.
While the original training camp edition of Hard Knocks seems to be slipping exponentially in relevance and the in-season edition of Hard Knocks has never quite found a way to break through everything else happening during the middle of the season, the offseason version found something truly special.
Following the New York Giants in the 2024 offseason, we saw access and insights like never before, including the franchise’s painstaking decision to let star running back Saquon Barkley walk in free agency. Barkley of course signed with the Eagles, rushed for 2,000 yards, won a Super Bowl, and the rest is history.
But there was no offseason version of Hard Knocks this year, largely because it was too successful and too insightful for its own good. As the Giants struggled and the Eagles soared, fans kept coming back to the front office decisions of Big Blue as it became internet fodder for making fun of the team. Every time Barkley broke off a big run, you were likely to see the clip of Giants owner John Mara saying he did not want to see the team’s most popular player go and play for the Eagles.
— TG Videos (@TalkinGiantsVid) July 17, 2024
And in an interview with Sports Business Journal, NFL Films executive Keith Cossrow said that the show was one of the best that the outlet has put together. But ultimately, it was too good for NFL teams to be comfortable with ever doing again because of the virality and popularity of the cilps on social media.
“When that one or two clips about Saquon got removed and isolated and blew up on social media, and as we’ve seen, have taken on a life of their own, that certainly gives people pause in the NFL and in every other walk of life about doing these sorts of shows,” Cossrow told SBJ. “It’s funny, we all want to go viral, right? Not for the wrong reasons, but it’s a measure of success in the world we live in today. But it can also go in directions that nobody can predict.”
That unpredictable nature of the offseason Hard Knocks was essentially too much for NFL franchises to stomach. No owner wanted to be the next John Mara and no general manager wanted to be the next Joe Schoen.
So will we ever see another offseason version again? Likely not, at least not with the same transparency and intrigue that the first edition had. If it ever does come back, it will likely be such a watered down and sanitized product that it’s hard to imagine anyone being compelled to care. We will know going into it that it will have gone through so many edits and so many layers of approval with teams that nothing could ever possibly air that could be a risk for the team involved.
That vulnerability and honesty is what made the Giants offseason saga so interesting and some of the best sports documentary viewing in recent memory. And that’s exactly why we won’t see it again.