Thanks to a tweak in the language regarding eligibility for HBO’s Hard Knocks, the Pittsburgh Steelers — despite being featured in the 2024 in-season portion of the show — now appear to be eligible for the training camp version this summer.
According to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the NFL has “liberalized its rules for Hard Knocks” removing the “non-playoff team” language within the rules to make the show more compelling to other teams.
Previously, teams that didn’t make the playoffs and didn’t have a first-year head coach were eligible for Hard Knocks, especially in training camp. Now the league has changed the language within the rules, removing the “non-playoff team” wording to open it up to more teams.
That change in the language means the Steelers are now eligible for the show in the summer, despite being on the in-season version last year. The Steelers won’t fall into Point II from Breer’s post because the schedule won’t rotate them for in-division for eight years.
The in-season show gave great looks behind the curtain at how head coach Mike Tomlin operates while also giving good looks into the dynamics of the team — from the quarterback room to the defensive line room under Cameron Heyward, to weekly leadership meetings, and how a guy like Minkah Fitzpatrick prepares daily.
Though Tomlin stated he didn’t like that Hard Knocks was giving away his secrets and providing so much access, it was good exposure for the Steelers in general as Tomlin took a star turn early in the show as the Steelers were winning games. Then the five-game losing streak happened, things were ugly, and a promising season disappeared in the blink of an eye. That led to the cringe-worthy message from Russell Wilson to Heyward after a loss to the Cincinnati Bengals to close the regular season and then the sad clip of Pat Freiermuth and Najee Harris sitting on the bench in Baltimore together knowing their time was coming to an end.
A lot has changed since then. Harris is off to Los Angeles after signing with the Chargers, the Steelers have an entirely new quarterback room that could potentially feature previous Hard Knocks star Aaron Rodgers, and star receiver DK Metcalf has joined the fold, making the Steelers quite an enticing option.
Also, a trip to Ireland for the first regular-season NFL game on the Emerald Isle — presumably early in the season — could make for an enticing training camp storyline, showing how the team is preparing for a trip abroad from a logistics standpoint.
It would be rather brutal, though, for the Steelers to have been on the in-season show during the 2024 season and then turn around and be on the training camp one. But with the removal of the non-playoff language, they appear to be eligible for training camp’s version of Hard Knocks.
