Just under a month ago, the NFL and HBO announced that the entire AFC North would be featured on the in-season version of Hard Knocks. While this is certainly going to be an exciting viewing experience for Pittsburgh Steelers fans, that doesn’t mean the team is thrilled about it.
Cameron Heyward was asked for his honest opinion on the latest episode of his Not Just Football podcast and discussed some concerns he has about cameras having unfettered access during the season.
“I hated it, I don’t wanna be on this,” Heyward said with a laugh. “The locker room is the locker room, and I just don’t want that getting messed up. There’s so many inside jokes. There’s so many people, like, you would assume everybody’s a jerk if you heard everything. But it comes from a loving place, and it comes from a caring place. We all wanna be better and we joke a lot. We poke and prod at each other, but it doesn’t come off that way always. And so that’s the only thing I really worry about.”
Locker rooms are normally an extremely private place, especially when just the team is present and reporters aren’t around. There are 53 guys, plus practice squad players, in that locker room nearly every day, and people like to joke around with each other. Sometimes those jokes are never meant to see the light of day, let alone be aired to millions of viewers on HBO and subsequent social media clips.
The Steelers have always kept their cards pretty close to the chest as an organization. They produce a series called The Standard for a look behind the curtain, but it is one of the least revealing series compared to what some other teams have started to self-produce. Given the Steelers’ level of success over the years, they have managed to avoid the standard training camp version of Hard Knocks. The rules state that if a team has a new head coach or if it has been to the playoffs in any of the prior two seasons then the NFL can force it to submit to the cameras.
The in-season version of the show circumvents some of those rules and will get the much-awaited look behind the curtain for the Steelers’ organization.
Christian Kuntz was a guest on Heyward’s podcast and also chimed in about Hard Knocks.
“I agree that people could get misinterpreted or other people could be misguided on how they feel about somebody based on what they hear on TV,” Kuntz said. “Where it could be just a joke, where it a hundred percent is just a joke or an inside joke. It’s just, a locker room’s like a safe place. That facility is like a safe place and you’re gonna have cameras everywhere. It’s in the middle of like Week 8, heat of the battle with division games and stuff.”
While they were sharing their overall concerns, it didn’t appear that the two were completely against Hard Knocks. They were having fun with it a bit, and picking which Steelers could end up being the star of the show. Special teams coordinator Danny Smith (and his bubblegum) along with Elandon Roberts and some other guys were predicted as being beloved by the general viewing audience.
Hopefully they can lean into the fun of the experience, and it doesn’t become a big distraction. It does unfortunately align with the most intense part of the Steelers’ schedule. If it is anything like the late season last year, that could be tumultuous for the cameras.
