Professional sport is always looking for new ways to expand its popularity and reach new fans. In recent years, one of the most relevant innovations in this sense have been the docuseries that have told football teams, motorsport championships, tennis tournaments and cycle races from the inside. These docuseries continue to arouse great interest because no one had ever told the world of professional sport so closely, and because there are still many opportunities for teams and championships to be told. Yet there are those who want nothing to do with it, like the Chicago Bears football team, whose owner was recently asked if he would like to participate in a filming season. His answer was: «I know there are many teams that have compelling stories to tell, we don’t».
The best example of the benefits brought by these docuseries, which have now become a well-recognized and widely replicated format, concerns Formula 1. The Netflix series Drive to Survive not only has it driven the growth of fans all over the world (especially in the United States), but it has also created another way of following Formula 1, different from the traditional one, with a more fluid and spectacular narrative.
Although these products are all quite recent, the format was conceived in the early 2000s for American football. For over twenty years the television station HBO has been producing Hard Knocks, a docuseries that in each of its seasons follows a National Football League (NFL) team and also tells it through the rather distinguishable voice of a narrator, the American actor Liev Schreiber. The leading team is selected according to three criteria, with some exceptions: they must not have played in the playoffs for two seasons in a row, they cannot be coached by a coach in their first year of contract and they must not have been the protagonists of a season of Hard Knocks in the previous decade.
Over time Hard Knocks it has become a tradition for American football and the benefits brought by the series are considered so relevant that, in the absence of spontaneous applications, the NFL itself can decide, or at least recommend, which team to focus on. There was a lot of uncertainty about the new protagonist this year, given that the four teams that met the criteria are in rather complicated moments. Of the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, New York Jets and Washington Commanders, however, only the Chicago Bears flatly refused to appear.
Matt Eberflus, allenatore dei Chicago Bears (Quinn Harris/Getty Images)
The Bears are one of the few teams never to have participated in Hard Knocks, and has long been one of the most disappointing in the NFL. Last year, with 4 wins and 13 losses, they were worst in the league and have been missing from the playoffs for thirteen years; yet they are the team from the third largest city in the United States and one of the oldest. The fact that he never even considers participating in a season of Hard Knocks it is considered by some to be a symptom of the lack of foresight of the owners, the same which is then reflected in the bad results obtained.
There are also those who argue that, although these series do not violate the privacy of the teams by showing only agreed and never compromising content, their productions can be a source of distraction or pressure, especially when things don’t go well. But in the past it has been proven that the results continue to depend exclusively on the work of the team: in this regard, the Detroit Lions in 2022 are mentioned, for example, which after a disastrous season of 3 wins and 13 losses returned to positive results (9 wins and 8 losses) just as they were protagonists of a season of Hard Knocks.
After the Bears’ recent rejection, a local reporter following the Chicago team he wrote: «Hard Knocks it’s a great way to build some positive interest around the worst teams. Lions have only benefited, for example. Any team that fears exposure lives in the past.” Meanwhile for the next season of Hard KnocksHBO and the NFL have chosen the New York Jets as protagonists, a team that in the United States is synonymous with mediocrity, but which is trying to relaunch itself after the signing of Aaron Rodgers, one of the most famous quarterbacks of his generation.
Meanwhile the series that are inspired by Hard Knocks are increasingly widespread. Amazon has also started producing them: it started years ago with American football and is now reaching a more global audience through football. Recently there have been seasons in collaboration with Manchester City, Tottenham, Juventus and Arsenal, and soon it will be the turn of Barcelona.
– Read also: “The Immaculate Reception” by Franco Harris
2023-07-24 14:14:07
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