For Doubters: Hard Knocks is Still Awesome, Get Back on the Train

So, I'm a bit late to this for sure. I don't care. A post needed to be dedicated to Hard Knocks. Because it still kicks ass.

I'll be honest. I used to love Hard Knocks. I remember watching it during its debut season with the Cowboys in 2002. At that point, I was 25 and memories of high school and college (pseudo) football, and our own training camps and "hell weeks," were fresh enough in my mind to make the episodes even more relatable.

Sure, my teams weren't professionals and contracts and fancy cars were nowhere in the vicinity. But football, is still football. Hitting sleds is still hitting sleds. Camaraderie and coming together through crappy two or three-a-days is somehow transcendent. All that made Hard Knocks so appealing back in the day.

Fast forward seven years...I'll be hitting 3-2 in a few weeks. Wife. More serious role at job. Long hours. Aside from some sporadic tuning in to giggle at Herm during the season where the Chiefs were featured in Hard Knocks, I haven't been paying attention. Add to that some of the negative buzz from a blogosphere that didn't really exist so much back in 2002 (and I surely wasn't an active member of what did), and consistently watching the 2009 Cincinnati Bengals on HBO was not in the consideration set.

Now, that's changed. I'm in again, and it's great. Found myself at home on a gray day in NYC (wife at a baby shower) and had already crossed off most of the day's to-do's, so I clicked around the barren wasteland of TV world early afternoon and there it was...calling me back. Two hours later, I've already DVR'd the rest of the series. Fantastic stuff.

It's just great TV. Debate the "realness" 'til you're blue in the face, for me, it's all the things that make sports great -- plus, the human element sappy crap for which I am always a sucker. It's the reason Twitter and Facebook and Ustream are all the rage. Hard Knocks (before all the digital/social stuff) helped us put as much of a face to these athletes off the field as we'd seen before. Hard Knocks is part a peek into the front office, part personality, part soap opera, part football and all incredibly entertaining particularly for someone who's always loved the game at its barest basics (drills, X's and O's and the like).

So, for anyone who may have been away awhile like I was, give Hard Knocks another run. Chances are, you'll be hooked right back. In the meantime, five random observations from the first two episodes none of which may have any credibility but that's what makes 'em fun...

1. It only took a little more than 100 minutes for me to understand (a bit) of why educated folks want Mike Smith run out of Cincinnati this badly. Aside from his actual decisions as owner/GM, he comes off as completely uninspiring, meddling and about as knowledgeable about football as I consider myself and most of my readers - and I don't consider myself qualified for an NFL President/GM role. In reviewing his bio, Brown may have less legitimate "credentials" than we do.

2. Call me crazy, but something about Andre Smith just seems to make him tailor-made for Bustville. I don't know all the in's-and-out's of his contract negotiations, but just showing him doing drills in Alabama doesn't convince me that the critiques that existed aren't actually well-founded and dead-on-balls accurate. I guess time will tell.

3. Chris Henry is bound for trouble again. Now, I've already said I'm basing all of this "theory" on watching two episodes of what is, by definition, a modern reality show. Which is to say, the reality of it all is always up for debate. That said, Henry doesn't even seem like a bad guy. And, in hearing him talk, the man sounds genuinely intent on turning around his image. I just think he's dumb as rocks. Dumb like Plaxico shoot-yourself-in-the-leg kinda dumb. Which means I won't be surprised if he does something stupid and gets himself almost "unwittingly" into trouble again.

4. There's no reason Chad Ochocinco shouldn't be one of the elite receivers in the League this year. The only reason would be Chad Ochocinco. Even on TV, you can see in the way he catches the ball, runs and moves that this is a different kind of receiver/athlete. He's his own biggest enemy. The funny thing? For one who's crushed Ochocinco on occasion, he's actually grown on me a bit from watching two episodes of this show. He's smart, funny, engaging and entrepreneurial for sure. If you could get him to truly 100% focus for the time he's on that field (game or practice), there's probably few better. If...

5. Marvin Lewis is a good coach - I think. I know, first off, what the hell do I know. Secondly, all these coaches seem somewhat the same on these shows and in locker rooms around the country. To a degree, that's absolutely true. Still, I think you can pick some things up, and, for my money, I still think Lewis is a quality NFL coach. Whether he has the personnel, one can debate. I'm rooting for him, though.

I won't get into all the other interesting little storylines around guys like Chris Pressley, and I hope to see a little more around Roy Williams and Lavaraneus Coles because it's interesting to see new faces in new places. Just watch the show. Go back and check out the episodes missed. Hell, it got me to look at Tank Johnson in another light? Maybe that makes me a sucker. If so, I'm OK with that and back on the Hard Knocks train for good.

posted at 2:21 PM