The Numbers that Hard Knocks Doesn't Want to See

Seahawks make their Hard Knocks debut on Tuesday, but fans are nonplussed about HBO's intrusion at training camp

The NFL and HBO Max are trying to revive the Hard Knocks series by changing their rules this year. While playoff teams were once untouchable, the Seattle Seahawks have become the Super Bowl-winning guinea pigs for Tuesday’s premiere to see if the NFL and the streamer can revive fading viewership for a show about training camp that has mostly shied away from the most intriguing day of the entire process.

Final cuts.

Maybe protecting players from using the worst moment of their careers as exploitative material for a TV show is the right thing to do, but nevertheless it’s difficult to get as many people to watch a behind-the-scenes documentary if the league is not willing to move the curtain for viewers.

What exactly is Hard Knocks a window “into” if they can’t be transparent about the players and the coaches, and also can’t show the most dramatic moment of the entire concept?

A failing education system?

In an era where almost everybody seems to be living their lives on social media in some fashion, repeating those actions on camera doesn’t become more interesting just because now it’s on HBO Max.

In researching what happened on Hard Knocks last year with the Buffalo Bills (because obviously I did not watch much of it after the first episode), it seems the biggest storyline was following special teamer Joe Andreessen. And that’s fine, definitely better than line dancing, but also further emphasizes that you can’t watch Hard Knocks and expect to find out whether or not Brian Fleury plans to call more passing plays that involve Elijah Arroyo this season.

You’re not going to find out if Jadarian Price will get 70% of the snaps in Week 1 or if Mike Macdonald plans to call significantly more blitzes than he did in 2025.

And by the final episode of the season, historically known as “cut day”, you’ll already know which players Seattle let go and which ones will be on the practice squad. This has always been true of Hard Knocks, of course we always got the news days before we got the episode, but at least we got insights that were unavailable until the show aired.

It’s sort of like if you hear that there’s a post-credits scene to a movie you already planned to see. No, it’s no longer a surprise that there’s a post-credits scene, you’re expecting it, but you’re still excited to sit through that long list of names and grips in order to witness it with your own eyes.

Perhaps the look of disappointment on a player’s face when he gets the news is not a scene you’re excited to watch, but it does sort of put training wheels on training camp and make the whole series feel like…

“Why?”

On that note, I think these survey results emphasize how much excitement for the show has tapered off in recent years.

If even the fans of the team featured on Hard Knocks—and a franchise that has never been on Hard Knocks at that—are lukewarm on the concept, then what hope is there to pull in fans of other teams?

Last week, I asked Seahawks fans:

“How much Hard Knocks will you watch?”

Here were the results:

40.8% - Every second of it (it’s the Seahawks)

23.1% - None

20.7% - As much as I can, but it’s not a priority

15.3% - I’ll decide after the first episode

Even though two out of five Seahawks fans said “every second”, almost one out of four of you said “NONE”!

Not even one second.

“None” beat out the number of fans who will try to watch if they remember and fans who are curious but not committed. Admittedly, I’ve been watching HBO for so long that I had forgotten that it’s a paid service and not free, and surely this is a huge factor in the results.

I’m not sure if there are any options for a free trial, but some people will likely get HBO for just a month in order to watch the whole series. (If you do that, wait at least a week or you’ll end up having to pay for two months.)

(Seaside Joe has a free trial option though.)

So in that way, maybe 40% is a high number. I don’t know.

However, the more that I thought about it, the more I worry that even I will get bored with Hard Knocks this year. It’s just not a very exciting program. The Seahawks are basically the only team that could compel me to commit to an entire season of the show and even then I worry that I’ll find myself scrolling or doing the New York Times spelling bee instead of paying attention to a segment about a player who, I don’t know, likes to eat Froot Loops for dinner.

Which is something I made up but still feels like it could be a segment.

Training Camp is at a Disadvantage

The reason that I say that I am still disinterested in Hard Knocks is actually very simple:

The only thing related to the NFL that I actually like to watch is…

REAL FOOTBALL GAMES THAT COUNT.

This is just one person’s sports opinion (once I started covering the Seahawks and the NFL, I completely disowned all other sports interests because I’m an efficiency-obsessed person and time with the Mariners* is time I could spend learning more about football) but I do not care about watching anything other than regular season and playoff games.

*when has time spent with the mariners ever not been disappointing?

I don’t like watching preseason games, but I’ll do it if it helps me gain insights into the regular season.

I don’t like watching the Pro Bowl, and I don’t know anyone who does.

I don’t really want to see players on podcasts or going shopping or streaming on Twitch, which can never lead to anything good…

I love that training camp is underway, but I also don’t need to watch the Seahawks practice. It doesn’t matter to me that they’re practicing. They should be practicing of course, but I get zero kicks from the opportunity to witness it.

It reminds me of the popular retort we used to say as kids:

“Let’s not, and say we did.”

Oh there’s a practice happening? And I can watch them practice? Thanks, but I’ve got tickets to see The Odyssey in IMAX at 6 AM on a Tuesday* instead.

*something that seaside jay and I really did do

Go to training camp? Let’s not and say we did.

I’ll be as excited as any person in the world when the Seahawks play the Patriots in Week 1, and that’s plenty enough for me. Training camp is at a huge disadvantage when it comes to drumming up interest in the NFL and that was evident in another poll question last week:

“What’s your favorite time of the year?”

48.3% - Week 1

30.6% - I can’t pick a favorite, I’m a year-round super fan

15% - Playoffs begin, that’s when the magic happens

4.1% - Start of training camp

2% - Start of the offseason, I’m a roster-building nut

There are 12 times as many fans who prefer Week 1 to the start of training camp. It was very exciting that training camp started last week because the offseason is so incredibly dull sometimes, but probably still pales in comparison to the first preseason game, which in itself is a painful bore compared to Week 1’s season opener.

These are rather indisputable points already, but now we have some numbers to back it up.

The NFL has tried to find demand for more content by adding “Hard Knocks in-season” a few years ago, but it turns out I want to watch that even less than the training camp edition. I also don’t watch Quarterback on Netflix or other doc series about the NFL either.

Football is just about my favorite thing in the world, but only when it’s the stakes of a real game and also unpredictable because it’s live.

Everything else just feels “less than”, and that’s just something that HBO and the NFL can’t fix in post-production when they finally submit…their final cut.

Seaside Joe 2709