Since the show first began more than 10 years ago, it seems that HBO has an increasingly difficult time finding a suitor for “Hard Knocks” each NFL season. No matter how you look at it, “Hard Knocks” is a distraction. It brings people and cameras inside your offseason training facilities that don’t need to be there. It exploits people like Antonio Cromartie and makes them look like morons. For those reasons and more, Anthony Fasano says several Dolphins players are not thrilled to be the stars of this year’s show.
“I wasn’t too thrilled to tell you the truth,” Fasano told Bob Papa and Ross Tucker of SiriusXM NFL Radio according to Pro Football Talk. “I think we were informed at a team meeting and there were a lot of groans when it was announced. But we’re going to have to deal with it and try not to let it be a distraction.
“I don’t know what kind of advantage it gives us as a football team having the show in there, and creating storylines that might not be storylines for the television show. I don’t know if it is totally accurate in some situations, that I’ve heard in the past. But just looking at it from a football standpoint and having camp be a time for our team to get ready for a season that we’re going to try to make a run at the playoffs, I don’t know how much that’s helping our team.”
Fasano did say that it will be fun for the fans to get a behind-the-scenes look into the Dolphins training camp, but it’s hard to disagree with him. Joe Philbin referred to it as a “football decision,” but we all know it’s a marketing decision. The Dolphins aren’t exactly the Steelers when it comes to selling tickets and personal seat licenses. If they can drum up the type of buzz the Jets generated two years ago, it can only help their franchise in terms of popularity.
Photo credit: Kirby Lee-US PRESSWIRE
