This summer, America will get an insider’s view of “America’s Team.”
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, never one to shy away from a chance to put himself or his team in the spotlight, is giving NFL Films camera crews total access to Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif., for the fourth installment of the critically acclaimed HBO reality series Hard Knocks.
“This is an opportunity for the Cowboys to bring millions of our fans closer to our team and the training camp experience,” Jones says. Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Dallas Cowboys airs in five one-hour episodes Wednesdays beginning Aug. 6 and ending Sept. 3, just a day before the beginning of the NFL regular season.
A 24-person NFL Films crew will live at the training facility, shooting more than 700 hours of video from the practice fields, meeting rooms, training rooms and dorms, putting cameras in places fans or other media outlets don’t get access to. In addition to training in Oxnard, Hard Knocks will go on the road for Cowboys preseason games at the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, and to Dallas for tune-ups vs. the Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings. Four players per day will wear wireless microphones during practices, and Hard Knocks will mic as many as 12 players during the Cowboys’ preseason games.
“It’s the most challenging, high-profile project of the year for NFL Films,” says NFL Films president Steve Sabol. “There’s no shooting script, no structure, no format. The storylines change weekly. For NFL Films, it’s a six-week-long audible. We’re privileged to be able to work with HBO and the Cowboys, the most glamorous franchise in pro sports.”
“We are extremely excited that Hard Knocks will be returning this summer and reconnecting with one of the great franchises in professional sports,” says HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg. “With an abundant lineup of stars, the Cowboys are again one of the most intriguing teams in the NFL.”
The Cowboys are coming off a 13-3 season that saw them win the NFC East division, but then suffer a 21-17 upset loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants in the divisional playoff game. The Cowboys are expected to be among the top teams in the NFL again this season in their second year under head coach Wade Phillips — but they’ll face added pressure and scrutiny following two straight winless postseasons.
It also won’t hurt Hard Knocks that “America’s Team” has plenty of off-the-field drama to drum up interest in the series — the on-again, off-again relationship between quarterback Tony Romo and pop star Jessica Simpson (and their ill-timed trips to Mexico), the controversial acquisition of troubled defensive back Adam (formerly “Pacman”) Jones after his season-long suspension, and wide receiver Terrell Owens just being T.O.
But much of the appeal of Hard Knocks doesn’t revolve around the big-name players as much as it does the grit and determination of rookies and undrafted free agents trying to win a spot on the roster — and the resulting heartbreak when they don’t.
“I swear to you, it’s not going to be the Pacman Jones or the T.O. or the Tony Romo story. It just won’t,” Greenburg says. “They will be part of a team and part of the story, but they won’t be the center of it all. I just know that for a fact. The drama develops on its own. Unless the drama surrounds Tony and T.O. and others, it’s just not going to happen. … There’s nothing like following that rookie trying to make the team. They’re still wearing that star and they’re trying to become a teammate of T.O. and Tony Romo, which is probably their dream. That’s great television also.”
But the big question remains: Why would any NFL team even want this added drama during their preseason preparations? Aside from the distraction of cameras in every nook of training camp, being featured on Hard Knocks hasn’t exactly proved to be a boon to teams in the past. Of the three teams previously featured, only one has made the playoffs in that season — the then Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens, who went 10-6 and earned a wild-card berth in 2001. When the Cowboys appeared on the show in 2002, they finished the regular season 5-11, and head coach Dave Campo was fired and replaced by Bill Parcells the following season. The show returned in 2007 after skipping four seasons. Last year’s largely forgettable Hard Knocks season featured the Kansas City Chiefs, who turned in a largely forgettable 4-12 season themselves.