Jets ‘Hard Knocks’ encore? Saints would be more compelling
So New York Jets owner Woody Johnson says while they haven’t had a formal invite to be on HBO’S Hard Knocks this summer, “when we do, we’ll take a look at it.”
How magnanimous. While New York’s other NFL team is the Super Bowl champ, the Jets guaranteed themselves offseason hubbub by importing Tim Tebow. Now they’re even willing to expose themselves to a behind-the-scenes TV show — one they were the subject of in 2010. Go figure.
But it’s a dumb idea for the rest of us. TV is going to put Tebow under surveillance — he’s now being tracked by ESPN drones — all summer anyway. Instead, Knocks should focus on a unique situation: the New Orleans Saints.
We’ve never seen an NFL team adjust to having its coach being on a forced one-year sabbatical. For the NFL Films-produced Knocks to show how the team adjusts to Sean Payton being sidelined because of his team’s paying bounties — and how the team reacts to Bountygate generally — could give the NFL’S vaunted film arm even more credibility. The NFL, having been happy to hail the Saints as a symbol of a beleaguered city, should cast a spotlight on a team it put in a bizarre situation.
And there are better options than making the Jets become the second team — after the Dallas Cowboys, who were on in 2002 and ’08 — to make a Knocks encore. Let’s see John Elway and Peyton Manning with the Denver Broncos. Or the Indianapolis Colts breaking in Andrew Luck. HBO, as always, declined to comment Tuesday on the show’s selection process.
Spice rack: NBC will announce today that NBC and cable’s NBC Sports Network will air 65.5 hours of Summer Olympic trials coverage — up from 49 in 2008. NBCSN has the tonnage as it also re-airs 117 hours. For the first time, NBC will carry every night of the swimming trials live in prime time, starting June 25. Michael Phelps’ splashes produced the TV ratings hits in 2008, and the network’s focus on him this year might set an Olympic TV hype record.
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