Hard Knocks is pivoting to campus.
As Front Office Sports first reported, Hard Knocks: Offseason will chronicle Bill Belichick and North Carolina football. The show should be fascinating, as the 72-year-old Belichick, an eight-time Super Bowl champion—six as Patriots head coach, two as Giants defensive coordinator—lays the groundwork for establishing a program at the college level.
It is a surprising choice as Belichick was famously reticent with the media as a head coach in New England. But he came out of his shell last season during a gap year in coaching, with his weekly appearances with Peyton and Eli Manning on ESPN’s Monday Night Football simulcast, plus his spots with Pat McAfee.
The Hard Knocks news comes after NFL Films publicly acknowledged it was struggling to find a team to participate in the reality show this year.
“There’s definitely a chance. We hope it’s back. We’re talking to a bunch of teams about it. But we’ll see what happens. I mean, we need a willing participant on that one. We’re not going to force someone to do that show,” NFL Films VP Keith Cossrow told Pat McAfee in January.
“That show is about a process,” he continued. “And I think it’s really cool to have been able to make a show about, ‘Hey, we’re going to start in January and we’re going to have an end point after the draft. And you’re going to see how a group of people, faced with really difficult decisions, goes about making those decisions.’”
A major reason the group struggled to find a team is last year’s season with the Giants, which showed GM Joe Schoen talking on the phone with running back Saquon Barkley’s agent. Schoen told Barkley’s agent to name the price that would keep him as a Giant, which was a three-year deal for $12.5 million a year with $25 million guaranteed.
“If I offered him [those numbers,] he’d be a Giant?” Schoen said. “All right, I’ll give you a call back. This may be above me on Saquon.”
Barkley signed with the NFC East rival Eagles and had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history, culminating in a Super Bowl championship.
Hard Knocks airs on HBO and the Max streaming service.
