Film Analysis: Hard Knocks
Few teams have gone from irrelevance to significance as quickly as the newly (re)christened Los Angeles Rams.
After wallowing in near-obscurity for the past decade in St. Louis, the league’s 23rd biggest market, team owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL announced in January that the Rams would be moving back to Los Angeles, the city that the club called home from 1946 to 1994. Suddenly, an organization that was almost an afterthought has become one of the hottest topics in the league.
This new-found relevance was certainly one of the main reasons that HBO wanted to film the Rams for their latest iteration of Hard Knocks, the cable network’s annual documentary series that focuses on an NFL team’s training camp. While many clubs and coaches have …show more content…
By appearing on Hard Knocks, everybody wins (metaphorically speaking, of course; the Rams will be lucky to break .500 this season).
The series itself should offer its audience a probing look at the Rams’ move to Los Angeles, and what exactly that entails. It’s rare to get a real-time look at a team making this big of a leap, let alone a jump into one of the league’s showcase cities. It’ll be interesting to see how the transition into the Hollywood spotlight affects the organization overall, as well as the players’ attitudes and preparation.
If nothing else, the move has already affected L.A. head coach Jeff Fisher. Fisher, who in previous years had been vocal in his opposition to appearing in the series, has changed his tune a bit, telling the Los Angeles Times that he welcomes the opportunity to have the Hard Knocks crew at this year’s training …show more content…
1 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, as he attends his first pro camp. Goff presents the filmmakers with a unique opportunity to show fans the type of tutelage that a future franchise quarterback receives. The Goff angle becomes even more intriguing when you consider the Rams’ dismal track record of development at the quarterback position over the past several years.
While Goff gives the team its first legitimate shot at having a franchise quarterback since Kurt Warner last donned the blue and gold in 2003, we don’t yet know if offensive coordinator Rob Boras and quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke will be able to provide Goff with the instruction he’ll need if Los Angeles is going to compete for a Super Bowl in the next few years. HBO’s cameras may provide us with some insight, but Goff’s play on the field will ultimately answer that question for us.
Regardless of which players and organizational operations the series shows us, Hard Knocks will be entertaining. HBO knows how to make a documentary — After all, this is a production team that managed to make Ricky Hatton look like a legitimate threat to end Floyd Mayweather’s undefeated streak, and any crew that can accomplish such a gargantuan task has editing chops for days. If the producers and editors want to, they could probably even make us believe that the Rams have a good chance to win the Super Bowl this
After wallowing in near-obscurity for the past decade in St. Louis, the league’s 23rd biggest market, team owner Stan Kroenke and the NFL announced in January that the Rams would be moving back to Los Angeles, the city that the club called home from 1946 to 1994. Suddenly, an organization that was almost an afterthought has become one of the hottest topics in the league.
This new-found relevance was certainly one of the main reasons that HBO wanted to film the Rams for their latest iteration of Hard Knocks, the cable network’s annual documentary series that focuses on an NFL team’s training camp. While many clubs and coaches have …show more content…
By appearing on Hard Knocks, everybody wins (metaphorically speaking, of course; the Rams will be lucky to break .500 this season).
The series itself should offer its audience a probing look at the Rams’ move to Los Angeles, and what exactly that entails. It’s rare to get a real-time look at a team making this big of a leap, let alone a jump into one of the league’s showcase cities. It’ll be interesting to see how the transition into the Hollywood spotlight affects the organization overall, as well as the players’ attitudes and preparation.
If nothing else, the move has already affected L.A. head coach Jeff Fisher. Fisher, who in previous years had been vocal in his opposition to appearing in the series, has changed his tune a bit, telling the Los Angeles Times that he welcomes the opportunity to have the Hard Knocks crew at this year’s training …show more content…
1 overall pick in this year’s NFL Draft, as he attends his first pro camp. Goff presents the filmmakers with a unique opportunity to show fans the type of tutelage that a future franchise quarterback receives. The Goff angle becomes even more intriguing when you consider the Rams’ dismal track record of development at the quarterback position over the past several years.
While Goff gives the team its first legitimate shot at having a franchise quarterback since Kurt Warner last donned the blue and gold in 2003, we don’t yet know if offensive coordinator Rob Boras and quarterbacks coach Chris Weinke will be able to provide Goff with the instruction he’ll need if Los Angeles is going to compete for a Super Bowl in the next few years. HBO’s cameras may provide us with some insight, but Goff’s play on the field will ultimately answer that question for us.
Regardless of which players and organizational operations the series shows us, Hard Knocks will be entertaining. HBO knows how to make a documentary — After all, this is a production team that managed to make Ricky Hatton look like a legitimate threat to end Floyd Mayweather’s undefeated streak, and any crew that can accomplish such a gargantuan task has editing chops for days. If the producers and editors want to, they could probably even make us believe that the Rams have a good chance to win the Super Bowl this