Last month, Jets G.M. Mike Tannenbaum told ProFootballTalk Live that there will be no encore performance by his team on HBO’s Hard Knocks. Even though coach Rex Ryan explains in his book, Play Like You Mean It, that the attention that came from being on the show prepared the team for the media crush that occurred during the 2010 playoffs and even with three teams saying “no thanks” in response to invitations to appear on the 2011 edition of the show, Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that the Jets won’t be having a change of heart.
Specifically, the Jets will not accept an invitation if/when an invitation for 2011 comes.
So far, the Lions, Buccaneers, and Broncos have formally passed.
Barring a fairly dramatic development, the discussion is largely academic at this point. The NFL and the players seem to be on a collision course for a truncated training camp/preseason, possibly coming in September or October. At some point, the folks at HBO should consider developing a weekly series that chronicles the ins and outs of the lockout, especially as the start of the season begins to be seriously threatened.
Who knows? Shining the lights of the NFL Films cameras on the situation could be the best way to solve it.