Though it remains to be seen whether the coin-flip flap keeps New York from getting a Super Bowl (it likely won’t), the pointed comments that Jets owner Woody Johnson pointed at the league office won’t keep the NFL Films cameras from pointing at Jets players.
The Jets have announced, as expected, that they will be the subject of this year’s Hard Knocks, a five-episode look at the team’s training camp.
“Hard Knocks has successfully traveled the country over the last several years,” NFL Films president Steve Sabol said in a news release. “There have been shows in Dallas, Baltimore, Kansas City and Cincinnati. Now we’ve got our act together -- we’re finally ready to open on Broadway!”
With last year’s success of the Bengals, the Hard Knocks assignment suddenly is regarded as a desirable thing, although there surely are many teams that would not want to submit to it.
“We are committed to being an organization that is open and accessible,” Jets chairman and CEO Woody Johnson said. “Hard Knocks serves as a tremendous vehicle for fans everywhere to receive unprecedented access and a fascinating behind-the-scenes look as we prepare for the 2010 season.”
Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News believes that this green-and-white Glasnost traces to that stack of unsold Personal Seat Licenses for the new stadium. “Thanks to HBO,” Cimini writes, “the Jets will have what amounts to a summer-long infomercial, hour and hours of prime-time, in-your-face Jets coverage for a national audience.”
Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether coach Rex Ryan takes a page from Vince Lombardi, who used to tell the NFL Films crews to pretend to be shooting footage even when the cameras were empty, since it made the players work harder.