Hello World: Hard Knocks Tonight at 10pm

After uttering those two words in August 1996, Tiger Woods jumped on to the international stage and began his professional golf career.

Tonight, as HBO's Hard Knocks begins a five-episode look into the largely anonymous Cincinnati Bengals, the nation will finally get a closer look at Carson, Chad, and the Redeemer himself, Mike Brown.

Bengals beat writer Joe Reedy has a nice piece on what to expect from Hard Knocks tonight, and has daily tidbits on what story lines the NFL Films crew might be following in his practice reports. 

This is what the Bengals wanted after all, a chance to silence their critics (maybe even us?) on how they run their NFL operation.  A chance for America to see what the real Chris Henry is like, and to dismiss the jailhouse image lingering from 2006 once and for all. 

In addition, the Bengals need to sell some tickets, desperately.  According to sources, only three games are selling well:  Pittsburgh and Cleveland (obviously) and Chicago.  The other five regular season games need to sell 'a significant' amount of tickets in order to sell-out...most importantly the season opener against Denver. 

Will Hard Knocks (and the start of preseason on Friday) help turn around the Bengals image?  Will it help sell tickets and merchandise?  Will someone in the Bengals front office actually state their goal is to win a Super Bowl?

All that we know is that anything done by NFL Films is usually fantastic, and that HBO subscriptions in Cincinnati have gone up sharply in the past week. 

Comments

[TheCarlPickensClause]

Hard Knocks should be extremely entertaining for any NFL and/or Bengals fan. I had no ties to the Cowboys or Chiefs and found the last two seasons VERY entertaining. I don't necessarily know that this will spur ticket sales that much, but it might. I think that only winning at this point would do that. Interesting point that the front office never mentions "winning the Super Bowl" as a goal...Often mentioned is "getting to the playoffs" but never "winning a championship"...

[kotw65]

I know what we have been hearing for years now and apparently it never gets old with mr brown and away we go...... They (meaning us the fans) might not be happy but " all we need to do is win a game or two" and everyone will feel better with the situation.

Not only this but, mr brown has many times stated that he does not mind the other teams fans at PBS because it gives everyone the chance to get the NFL experience

And yes, HBO will demonstrate a brilliant coverup urrrr well, "good job" portraying the bengals as a real NFL team.

The unfortunate reality is the multiple buses packed with steeler fans will infiltrate game 3 and the bengal season will be over after that except for a few wins in December over last place teams.

[BILL]

Well I think that episode may have done more to help your cause than any email or phone call could have. Seeing Mike Brown run personnel meeting. WOW. Here is your 19 dollars

[kotw65]

What did we see/here tonight? "Compete" numorous times, "cussing" numorous times, and the ability by HBO to actually think or show that while the team and players go through the motions that they might care a bit. The show was boring and painful to watch "child please" who really cares? ie child please, fans, players, coaches, and child please, last but not least the brown family.

I do have to say the ending where the player was told only "ability" is the reason players are cut was fucking excellent and "child please", amazing as after the last 19 years who has the "ability" to question anyones ability????

Thank you mr 'ability" brown

[tbar]

Punkin and her Pa were pathetic. They came off as the total rubes they are. Embarrassing for the city and the franchise. What did Punkin say? "We gave him a fair contract. yuck, yuck!" What a frickin joke! Child, please, Punkin! We are looking at 4-12, people!

[Ashley]

After seeing that show, I think Hard Knocks can only help the Revolution. Mike Brown looked like the bumbling idiot he is, and you can kind of tell HBO agrees due to the footage they chose to show of him.

Its a lucky thing for HBO it is a reality show; you can't make comedy like that up.

[Ashley]

And also what is up with their new motto "Fight Back"... fight back to what? "Fight Back" implies we were once somewhere.

[Torgo]

Who was Mikey trying to switch from defense to TE after Utecht went down? Did you see the looks on the faces of Hayes and the other position coaches? Hilarious! "How about playing Quan Cosby as the nickel back. He's got real football ability."

[Torgo]

It illustrates how cheap the Brown family is that they won't sign veteran players as legit replacements. They're just moving folks like Shirley around like interchangeable drill bits. Also, I loved it when they showed the price gouging by Brown/Blackburn for TV rentals!

[Will]

What we learned from Hard Knocks is that if you drop a pass, Carson Palmer will kick you in the balls.

[Steve M.]

That was truly terrifying to see Mike Brown running the personnel meeting. Shouldn't the head coach be doing that? If anyone should be deciding how many players at each position the team should keep it should be the coach or the GM - oh wait, there is no GM. That was a really shocking scene.

[Jared B]

WDR: Could you help out with the production of this year's douche bag tshirt? - "Child PLEASE Mike Brown!"

[Comrade Robert]

Have not seen the show. Wanted to see reviews/reation to first show before ordering HBO (knowing it repeats during the week).
Question. No mention of the banners?

[Factcorrecter]

Wow i'm all for wanting the Bengals to get a real GM like Pioli caliber but why does everyone one here claim they don't have one?? They do, granted it's MB which isn't a great one but he is the GM just as Jerry Jones is the GM for Dallas.

[deepfryer]

What the f is "Spongetech?"