Steelers Could Be Flirting with Hard Knocks

[NorthCoast]

This could be a key season for the Steelers to stay off the Hard Knocks list of eligibles. If they don't make the playoffs they check off all the boxes in 2024 (unless Tomlin gets fired after the season):

NFL 'Hard Knocks' eligibility qualifications
Technically, any team can appear on "Hard Knocks" if they volunteer. But it's extremely unlikely that happens. So the NFL made a rule change in 2013 that allowed itself to force a team to appear on the show, as long as it meets the following qualifications:

• The team hasn't made the playoffs in either of the last two seasons
• The team doesn't have a first-year head coach
• The team hasn't been on the program at any point in the last 10 years

Why should we care? Well, teams featured on the show have a pretty sad record for that season. Just too much of a distraction and focus on cameras rather than the game of football.

(full disclosure: I don't have HBO and I could care less about the show)

[WindyCitySteel]

I've had HBO for 15 years and never watched a single episode.

[Blitzer]

I watched the year AB was on it. I like trainwrecks and car crashes also

[Joel Buchsbaum]

I've had HBO for 15 years and never watched a single episode.

It is good stuff. Yeah there is some drama for ratings but there is also a rare peek behind the curtain on how thing are run, how the head coach make decisions, the players life's ,etc..

This year the Jets are on. The do not have a turd at quarterback anymore. My vote for the most improved AFC team.

[Northern_Blitz]

It's been pretty consistently reported that Rooney doesn't want us to be on the show. So I think it won't happen unless we get strong armed into it. And I'd imagine that there will always be some team that wants to be on it to drum up season ticket sales or whatever.

[whisper]

No surprise Rooney wants no part of: It typically exposes responsibility and accountability to team decisions. Jerry Jones doesn't mind that, he's calling the shots and it doesn't care who knows. That's not how Pgh likes going about things; everything is kept as a mystery, all clandestine, right down to who is calling the plays. And hiring/firing? Forget it. All furtive. (Hell, we don't even expose when someone was let go; we claim they retire Remember the Airans fisco?)

[NorthCoast]

It's been pretty consistently reported that Rooney doesn't want us to be on the show. So I think it won't happen unless we get strong armed into it. And I'd imagine that there will always be some team that wants to be on it to drum up season ticket sales or whatever.

On FSR yesterday they said most of the NFL coaches don't want to be on the show. That's why they have the rules to force teams into it if NFL and network agree.

[WindyCitySteel]

Kenny not a fan. Love this guy's maturity beyond his years.

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/07/kenny-pickett-not-interested-in-being-on-hard-knocks-i-think-guys-would-kind-of-lose-focus/

[HollywoodSteel]

My favorite moment on the show is when James Harrison was on the Bengals and proved that he was at the top of the pecking order.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hNTsLCvSezY&pp=ygUcamFtZXMgaGFycmlzb24gYXJ tIHdyZXN0bGluZw%3D%3D

[Steel Maniac]

Never seen one hardknocks and don't intend to.