One of the NFL’s top teams will be featured on this year’s Hard Knocks.
The Buffalo Bills have been selected to participate in the flagship training camp edition of the Hard Knocks franchise this season, HBO and NFL Films announced on Wednesday. The news comes just a couple months following reports that the NFL had “liberalized” eligibility requirements for Hard Knocks, allowing the league to pick from a “much wider” pool of teams. Previously, teams that had made the playoffs in either of the previous two seasons could decline an invitation to appear on the show.
Along with the long-running training camp show, HBO is bringing back Hard Knocks: In Season, which debuted its division format last season and featured the AFC North. This year, NFL Films will be documenting the NFC East, a division that features the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC runners-up Washington Commanders, and, of course, the Dallas Cowboys.
“We are thrilled to provide Hard Knocks fans a summer with the Bills and winter with the Cowboys, Giants, Commanders, and Eagles in the first year of our exciting new deal with NFL Films. There will be no shortage of star power,” HBO executives Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller said in a statement.
The new season of Hard Knocks will premier on August 5 at 9 p.m. ET, with the in-season version slated to debut in December.
Notably, it is the first time the Bills have ever featured on Hard Knocks during the show’s 25-year run. The Cowboys have made the most appearances on the show, starring in 2002, 2008, and 2021.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.