The Pittsburgh Steelers are being strong-armed into participating in Hard Knocks this year. The NFL is debuting an in-season edition that follows an entire division, beginning with the AFC North. And the Steelers, as you might expect, are not happy about it, yet they have no choice.
“I guarantee you everyone in that building hates it”, Ray Fittipaldo said on 93.7 The Fan’s Morning Show yesterday. They managed to avoid appearing on Hard Knocks for all these years, but this is different.
“It’s like anything. If the NFL is gonna make money off this and the teams are gonna benefit, the Steelers will hold their nose and they’ll do it”, he said. “I’m sure that was a financial aspect to this. I’m sure it means more money in the pockets of the owners.
“That’s the only reason the Steelers are doing this. Mike Tomlin, I don’t know if he’s been on record, but I just know that covering this team for as long as I have that it’s been a very distasteful thing for them to consider, and now it’s here, I’m sure they’re just gonna hold their nose and do it because they’re asked”.
Teams must meet three criteria in order to avoid exemption from the traditional Hard Knocks program. Any team without a new head coach who hasn’t appeared on the show in the past 10 years and hasn’t qualified for the postseason in the previous two seasons is not exempt. If the NFL tells them they are doing the show, they have to do it. The Steelers only failed to qualify for exemption twice in 2014 and 2020, but the league didn’t ask them, apparently. That, or Roger Goodell did Art Rooney II a favor.
The traditional Hard Knocks program occurs during training camp. An HBO crew floods the facilities with cameras and microphones to record everything, though the team has executive control over what airs. Even so, many teams find it a distraction not worth entertaining. I don’t know if any team has actually volunteered to do the show before.
That’s probably one of the NFL’s biggest motivations for this additional Hard Knocks show. By following an entire division, it can cast a wider net including more successful teams. The Steelers were one of only three teams in the AFC North that reached the postseason last year. It was the first division in which every team finished with a winning record.
I’m sure Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is unhappy about having cameras following his players around. Reporters asked him at the end of the 2019 season about the prospects of having to feature on Hard Knocks. You can tell by his reaction that he was not looking forward to the possibility.
Steelers captain Cameron Heyward previously said he would never appear on the show, but players don’t get a choice.
