The Bills’ training camp will be featured on this summer’s Hard Knocks, and head coach Sean McDermott says that will provide his team with some additional challenges. McDermott said a big part of training camp is building relationships among teammates and coaches, and that the kinds of honest conversations necessary to building strong relationships aren’t as easy when everything is going to be recorded and potentially broadcast to the world. “The real challenge to us is the authenticity of who we are, and building that critical trust that is so important to building a good, healthy relationship among players, among staff,” McDermott said. “That trust piece is huge in terms of bringing the team together. That glue part is going to be challenged because of that third component, whether it’s a microphone, a camera in different rooms, in different conversations. But we are who we are and that authenticity piece must stay intact.” McDermott acknowledged that Hard Knocks is a good thing for Bills fans, even as he said that no show can give a complete look at what any team’s training camp is really like. “The opportunity is there for us to, No. 1, our fans, they can get an inside look, a little bit, at what happens. Is it 100 percent inside? Maybe not,” McDermott said. In past years, the Bills would have been able to turn down Hard Knocks because they made the playoffs. But this year the NFL removed the rule that allowed playoff teams to refuse to appear on the show, and now McDermott’s team will have cameras and microphones in its meeting rooms. Whether he likes it or not.
It's so wild that HBO gets to tell professional football teams that they're complying with being on the show. Hopefully this hurts the Bills in true HBO fashion.
