NFL fans collectively yawned at the Giants being featured on Hard Knocks. Here’s why they may still get their wish of seeing the Bears

Fans wanted to see the Bears on Hard Knocks this summer, and they still might.

The New York Giants will be featured on an upcoming season of HBO’s Hard Knocks, it was announced Wednesday, leaving fans less than enthused about the prospects of watching a team void of much excitement.

As a Giants fan myself, even I can admit to hardly caring to see Big Blue featured in the overly-edited BTS show. It’s just not a fun time to care about the Giants.

However, one fanbase in particular really thought this was a missed opportunity for HBO, and it was that of the Chicago Bears. With so many moving parts on a promising young roster featuring No. 1 overall draft pick Caleb Williams, NFL fans thought Chicago was an obvious choice for Hard Knocks.

But everybody can calm down. The Bears may still end up on Hard Knocks this summer.

The Giants are being featured on a new version of the show that focuses specifically on the offseason, from January to July. Titled Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants, this iteration will give fans a behind the scenes look at things like the scouting combine, free agency and the draft.

As for the team to be featured on the traditional training camp version of Hard Knocks, that’s still to be determined.

Having a playoff appearance in the last two years was removed as something that can disqualify teams from appearing on the show, so the pool of potential teams is likely bigger than usual. But it still includes the Bears (for now), as they don’t yet meet any of the other disqualifying criteria, which includes:

  • Team has a first-year head coach
  • Team is participating in the in-season version of Hard Knocks this year or next year
  • Team appeared on Hard Knocks in the past eight years

The new offseason Hard Knocks featuring the Giants debuts July 2.