The Lions will not be on Hard Knocks in 2021

The Dallas Cowboys will be this year’s featured team

It was not likely to happen, but it’s now official: the Detroit Lions will not be the featured team on the 2021 edition of “Hard Knocks”. The behind-the-scenes training camp docuseries from HBO will roll with the Dallas Cowboys as the subject of this summer’s series.

The Cowboys will be the team on Hard Knocks, the network announced on Friday. It is the 20th season for the popular series, and Dallas will be the first team to appear for a third time.

Detroit was not among the typical candidate pools for Hard Knocks. The series usually features a team with a returning head coach in place from a non-playoff team the season before. The Lions made a coaching change, which took them out of the limited amount of teams who could appear.

There was a real consideration for the Lions to be the subject in 2020, prior to Matt Patricia’s final season. The series instead opted to feature the two Los Angeles teams in their new home. That included the Chargers and head coach Anthony Lynn, who was later fired and is now the offensive coordinator in Detroit.

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