HBO's 'Hard Knocks' offseason show with the Giants concludes with the NFL Draft in Episode 5
Giants head coach Brian Daboll, left, and GM Joe Schoen watch wide receiver Malik Nabers during training camp on Tuesday. Credit: Corey Sipkin
The Giants hope to exceed the football world’s low expectations for them on the field this season. They already have done so in media.
When the NFL and HBO announced a new concept, “Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants,” much of the league, as well as fans and journalists, figured the show would pull back the curtain only for a limited glimpse behind the scenes.
Instead, the series, whose fifth and final episode premiered on HBO and Max on Tuesday night, was a July hit that surprised viewers with its level of access.
Yes, it’s a reality show, so stuff went on that we were not privy to, and the editing process surely shaped the narrative.
But again: Few expected this degree of transparency, from general manager Joe Schoen bluntly setting the tone for Saquon Barkley’s departure to Schoen openly bidding to move up in the draft for an heir apparent to quarterback Daniel Jones.
Even an NFL observer as experienced and savvy as Eli Manning found it fascinating.
“There’s a lot of stuff going on,” the former Giants quarterback told Newsday. “Behind the scenes as a player, you don’t know what’s happening in the draft and around all the scouting. So it was fun to watch.”
More fun for him than for Jones, his successor, who acknowledged when arriving at camp that the quarterback drama was uncomfortable for him.
“Obviously, you’re not excited about it,” he said. “But they have a job to do, I have a job to do, so it is what it is.”
The season finale focuses on the draft. There are not many surprises, since we already know which players the Giants choose.
As executives wait to see whom the Chargers take No. 5 overall, hoping it will be an offensive tackle, coach Brian Daboll is heard saying, “Just not Malik.”
That would be Malik Nabers, the LSU receiver they did get to select sixth overall and whom they considered their top non-quarterback target.
While the Giants are on the clock but before they select, Schoen decides to wait for potential calls offering trades. He hears from the Colts and, intriguingly, the Jets, before deciding to stay put. (We do not hear what the Jets were offering.)
This kind of show would not work as well in another sport – or at least would not interest this wide of an audience.
Only the NFL can sell as quality content people sitting in rooms talking to each other or on phones about free agents and draft picks.
The Giants suggested the format, in part to honor their 100th season, in part to showcase their scouts and personnel department. And then there was this:
“I’m not going to lie,” team president John Mara said on the show’s official “Hard Knocks Podcast.” “I thought it would maybe keep us off the training camps ‘Hard Knocks’ for a while, if I’m being totally honest.”
In 2010, Mara famously said in the Daily News about when the Giants might be on the show, “That announcement will come when I'm next to my father in Gates of Heaven Cemetery."
Now Mara has another classic “Hard Knocks” quote on his resume, when he tells Schoen, “I'm going to have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I'll tell you that.”
It is the sort of quote that is sure to come up when the Giants play the Eagles this season and beyond.
A lot of “Hard Knocks” quotes will echo. They already have, with reporters asking questions related to the series on multiple occasions in the first week of camp.
Mara and Schoen acknowledged on the podcast the uncomfortableness of having private conversations go public. Schoen knows he will be hearing about some of them in perpetuity.
“It can all come back in your face,” he said. “Something doesn’t happen in Week 7, and they pull something from the show and, ‘This is what they said.'"
He’s right, but that’s part of the fun of it for the rest of us.
“I’ll be curious to see next offseason if somebody’s willing to do this offseason show again,” Schoen said on the podcast.
It will not be the Giants.
Said Mara, “Let’s not make this an annual event.”
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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