HBO’s Hard Knocks reality show is watched by fans around the league every offseason, but seemingly no fan wants their team to actually appear on it. There’s some good reasons for that. Having cameras around during training camp is an easy distraction and more scrutiny isn’t usually a good thing for teams that have enough pressure from their own local media and fanbases.
For those reasons, most New York Giants fans are hoping that the team isn’t the one chosen by the league.
Oddsmakers, however, give them a good chance of being picked. BetOnline gave the Giants the third highest odds at 3/1, placing them just behind the Raiders and Redskins as the most likely teams to show up on Hard Knocks. Of the three, they might just be the most attractive option for the league.
The Giants are one of the teams that, according to the league rules, can be forced to appear on the show. They don’t have a rookie head coach, they’ve missed the playoffs for the last two years, and and the Giants have never been on the show before, meaning they don’t qualify for safety because of appearing within the last ten seasons.
Of course, there are other teams that meet the same requirements that the league could pick, but few teams around the league period have had as interesting offseasons as the New York Giants. Picking Daniel Jones at number six overall, moving on from Odell Beckham Jr. and Landon Collins, and going for an overall younger revamp on the defense are all storylines that would make for good television.
While it might make for good TV, though, few believe that it will be beneficial to the team’s season. With only a few teams considered to be in the running at this point, Giants fans will mostly be hoping that it’s the Raiders or Redskins who end up picked in the end.