The NFL and HBO have still not revealed which team will appear on Hard Knocks this year, probably because they’re having a hard time cajoling a team into agreeing to do it. Which means some team might be forced to do it.
The Saints, Jets, Bears and Commanders are the four teams that can be forced to do Hard Knocks this year, and Saints head coach Dennis Allen hopes his team isn’t chosen.
“I wouldn’t like it because I just want to focus on our football team and getting better, and any distractions are exactly that, distractions that keep you, ultimately, from reaching your goal,” Allen said.
It’s rare that a team wants to do Hard Knocks, as coaches typically think the cameras and microphones are bound to get in the way and give the team no competitive advantage. But the league has rules that require a team to accept Hard Knocks if that team doesn’t have a first-year coach, hasn’t been to the playoffs in the last two years and hasn’t done Hard Knocks in the last 10 years. The Saints fit that bill, and so they might be appearing on our TVs this summer, whether Allen likes it or not.