Jets Hard Knocks? Color Me ECSTATIC

The maybe soon-to-be formerly fat man and his merry band of revelers are heading to camp in a few months — and into our living rooms. Say hello to your Jets…on HBO!

Yes, it appears my beloved green-and-white will be the next team featured on HBO’s phenomenal Hard Knocks program. Now, I’ve used this platform to profess my love for this show before — and that was when they were chronicling the Bengals. On a scale of 1-10, my excitement about this latest newcomer to the Hard Knocks anthology is a 12.5.

First off, Hard Knocks is terrific TV. If you love the game, you’ll love HK. If you played ball in high school and/or college, you’ll love it even more. And, if you ever in your wildest dreams thought that maybe some day you wouldn’t mind coaching football, scouting or some variation thereof, well…you end up being like me about Hard Knocks. Which is to say, borderline fanatical.

Now you’re telling me my team is grabbing the spotlight? I don’t watch much TV or even take advantage of the DVR to any real degree. Yet, this will be an automatic season-long recording. The reasons for my completely out-of-whack enthusiasm are multiple. It’s nice learning the storylines of rookies and veterans you know little about during the course of a HN season.

It’s even better when you’re already familiar with all of those youngsters and old bucks, as well as everyone else on the roster. Instead of following tweets and blurbs from beat writers, you feel like you can actually watch the team take shape. Sure, it’s in a made-for-TV, highly edited and injected with needless drama format of training camp, but it matters not.

All of it now gets better. The mindless stuff like hitting the sled or dback footwork drills that I already find strangely entertaining are now better. The footage of guys messing around in dorm rooms playing video games is funnier. The coaches cursing out shoddy play get spicier. Mind you, this is all fun to watch even if you had a somewhat “vanilla” team as the central subject. No offense to the Herm Edwards-led Chiefs, but that could be one example. The Cowboys brought a little more to the party back in the day. And even last year’s Bengals group offered Ocho Cinco and a pretty humorous Carson Palmer.

However, this year’s Jets team has the potential to top them all. You can’t blame HBO for wanting to follow this crew. Consider the elements that could align toward television gold:

1. A second-year “pretty boy” quarterback who loves the camera
2. A HOF running back trying to show he’s still got something in the tank
3. Two star players (in Leon Washington and Kris Jenkins) looking to come back from season-ending injuries in ’09
4. A team that advanced to within a game of the Super Bowl last year under a rookie headcoach and with a first-year signal caller
5. A linebacker who has a hard time keeping his mouth shut
6. A young corner in Darrelle Revis coming off a year in which he should’ve been named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year
7. A receiver in Braylon Edwards trying to eradicate notions of permanent dropsies disease and convince his coaches and teammates he can again be an elite receiver
8. An offensive line some argue is the best in the NFL
9. A second-year running back aiming to show he’s now the #1 guy the Jets have anointed him to be
10.And most of all… a coach who is going to say absolutely anything. Or at least one who usually does. As a PR guy, I’d be willing to bet the Jets communications folks will tell Rex he can “be Rex,” but try not be too much, well, like himself.

All in all, it just makes for all sorts of deliciousness. Sure, some folks think having the cameras around throughout camp gets guys distracted or sets the wrong tone. I think Rexy is going to relish it and use it to motivate the hell out of this team, and I can’t wait. Hard Knocks: Training Camp with Rex Ryan and the New York Jets. Talk about must-see TV.