When the Nielsen ratings folks pore over the numbers after tonight’s premiere of the in-season version of Hard Knocks, most of Pittsburgh will be tuning in to the HBO show. But Mike Tomlin’s house will be watching anything else. Though it’ll be the Steelers and rest of the AFC North the feature of the series, Tomlin has no plans to tune in.
“Absolutely not,” Tomlin said during his Tuesday presser via the team’s YouTube channel when asked if he was tuning in.
Tomlin’s gotten his fill of the Hard Knocks cameras already. They’ve been in the Steelers’ facility, on the sideline, and in the tunnels for a month. It’s the first time the Steelers have been featured on the show. They were hostages, not volunteers to the occasion.
The upside, as Tomlin has pointed out, is the rest of the division is dealing with the challenge. For the first time, Hard Knocks is featuring a division instead of just one team. It will follow the AFC North race the rest of the regular season and keep cameras on whoever advances to the playoffs. Right now, Pittsburgh and Baltimore appear to be sure bets to make it while Cincinnati and Cleveland are essentially eliminated from postseason contention.
It’s not quite what Hard Knocks executives imagined when they chose the division. They were hoping for a repeat of last year, a close battle where three teams – Baltimore, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh – ultimately made the postseason. Instead, it’s the NFC’s North that’s been the most competitive with the Detroit Lions, Minnesota Vikings, and Green Bay Packers all 9-3 or better.
Hard Knocks released another trailer for tonight’s debut. It featured a cut-up of team meetings across the four teams, each coaching staff sending their own variation of the same message for the home stretch of the season.
“Are you thriving or surviving?” was one of Tomlin’s central messages.
Near the end of a four-game stretch playing all AFC North teams, the Steelers have a chance to finish the quartet of games 3-1. It would extend the league’s longest active streak of finishing .500 or better in division. But a loss to the Cleveland Browns Sunday would send them to 2-2 and be swept by them this regular season.
We’ll be here to recap the first full episode of the show once it drops tonight at 9 PM/EST.
