There’s still a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the scheduled start of training camp, the NFL preseason, and the NFL regular season in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But at least for now, one tradition is on schedule. On Thursday, HBO announced that the Los Angeles Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers will be the dual subjects of the network’s “Hard Knocks” documentary series.
It’s the 15th edition of the series, and the first time the network has endeavored to cover two teams at the same time. The two franchises are set to share the spectacular new 70,000-seat SoFi stadium that is nearing completion in Inglewood, California, which helps.
“The ‘Hard Knocks’ franchise continues to excel as the preeminent sports reality series,” Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President of HBO Sports, said in a statement. “Our partnership with NFL Films, which dates back to 1977, consistently produces groundbreaking television programming. We are grateful to the Chargers and Rams organizations to be able to present the 2020 training camp experience.”
Both Chargers head coach Anthony Lynn and Rams head coach Sean McVay seemed happy about the selections.
“Having been part of Hard Knocks before when I was with the New York Jets, my biggest takeaway from that whole experience was that you get out of it what you put into it,” Lynn said. “There’s a reason that season was probably the most popular Hard Knocks ever. If you’re going to do a show, do it right. You can’t fake it. We didn’t have a problem providing access because we built a relationship with the crew. There was a mutual trust that exists to this day with those people, and many of them will actually be working on this year’s show. Broadcasting your internal business all over the world isn’t something you regularly want to do, but in a year with as many challenges as this one has had, I’m glad we can be part of bringing football back to the fans this summer.”
“We are looking forward to having Hard Knocks in our camp this year,” McVay said. “Hard Knocks always offers a rare opportunity for our fans to see our players’ hard work to prepare for the season, as well as gives them a peek behind the curtain to observe these guys off the field, too. This year will be special because the show will also get an unprecedented look at SoFi Stadium, Stan Kroenke’s vision for professional football in L.A.”
Of course, this announcement brings all kinds of questions. Will training camps start on time? What kind of social distancing measures will be in place for NFL Films’ production crew? What exactly will that crew be shooting, and turning around in its usually quick fashion?
McVay, per Ben Fischer of Sports Business Daily, has one very legitimate question.
An animated @RamsNFL Coach Sean McVay: "We're gonna social distance, but we play football? It's really hard for me to understand all this. I don't get it. I really don't."
— Ben Fischer (@BenFischerSBJ) June 18, 2020
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a key member of the White House task force on the coronavirus, recently said on CNN that the only way to ensure any kind of safety for players in 2020 would be to model a “bubble” paradigm similar to the ones proposed by the NBA and MLS — basically, putting players, coaches, and executives in a quarantine situation.
“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci said. “If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.”
Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s Chief Medical Officer, said in a statement in response to what Dr. Fauci said that the league is working to develop a plan.
“We are developing a comprehensive and rapid-result testing program and rigorous protocols that call for a shared responsibility from everyone inside our football ecosystem. This is based on the collective guidance of public health officials, including the White House task force, the CDC, infectious disease experts, and other sports leagues.
“Make no mistake, this is no easy task. We will make adjustments as necessary to meet the public health environment as we prepare to play the 2020 season as scheduled with increased protocols and safety measures for all players, personnel and attendees. We will be flexible and adaptable in this environment to adjust to the virus as needed.”
No easy task? It’s an impossible task. Until there is an antidote for the virus, there’s no way to prevent players from spreading the virus in practice and game conditions. There are various medical protocols to reduce the risk of infection, such as wearing various kinds of masks, perhaps purpose-built in helmets, but as is the case for everybody else in the world, prevention is the best anybody can do.
So, while the “Hard Knocks” announcement is an encouraging step toward an NFL season and a sense of normalcy, we also have to acknowledge that we’re nowhere near normal yet.