I’ll need to use all capital letters to describe just how loud and clear running back Jamaal Williams was Tuesday when asked about his thoughts on the Saints possibly appearing on the HBO series “Hard Knocks.”
“GOD, NO! PLEASE. NO! GOD, NO! NO!!” Williams answered with a voice loud enough to be heard on the other side of the Saints’ locker room.
Williams, who spent the past two seasons with the Detroit Lions, appeared on the series last training camp and was one of the stars of the reality sports documentary when the Lions were featured.
“I don’t want no more cameras in my face,” Williams said. “That’s all. Thank you for bringing that trauma back.”
Williams was joking when he called it trauma.
“Nah, it wasn’t that bad,” he said.
But the Saints all seem in agreement to give a hard no to “Hard Knocks” if given a choice.
The Saints are one of four teams eligible to be on the documentary series this season. There are three simple criteria that exclude a team from being on the show, but the Saints don’t check any of those boxes.
1. Teams that have a first-year coach. (Saints coach Dennis Allen is in his second year.)
2. Teams that have been in the playoffs in one of the past two seasons. (The Saints have missed the playoffs the past two seasons.)
3. Teams that have been on “Hard Knocks” in the past 10 years. (The Saints have never been on it.)
So the Saints, along with the New York Jets, Chicago Bears and Washington Commanders are the only teams that meet all three criteria. My best guess is the Jets, who now have four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers on their roster, will be HBO’s choice. HBO announced the Lions in March last year, but there is no timetable on when they will announce this year’s team. Saints officials say HBO hasn't contacted them about being featured this season.
Count Allen among the ones who doesn’t want the camera crews to make their way to Airline Drive in Metairie.
"I wouldn't like it because I just want to focus on our football team and getting better,” Allen said. “Any distractions are exactly that. Distractions that keep you, ultimately, from reaching your goal."
Saints safety Tyrann Mathieu never has appeared on “Hard Knocks”, but he was on the Amazon Prime series “All or Nothing” during his playing days with the Arizona Cardinals. So he knows what it can be like having cameras following your every move.
“I don’t necessarily care,” Mathieu said. “But I know a lot of guys like their personal space.”
Especially in those moments on “Hard Knocks” when teams are making roster cuts and players are finding out they are being released.
“Those are tough moments on that show, because this is a tough business,” Mathieu said. “Everything gets caught on camera. I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not raising my hands to volunteer to do it either.”
You won’t see kicker Wil Lutz volunteering the Saints for the show either. He’s never been on a reality show like this, but knows the drawbacks of it.
“I have a little bit of the thought that any publicity is good publicity,” Lutz said. “But I think the problem with 'Hard Knocks' is you almost have to adjust your work atmosphere with it. I think in an industry like this, you don’t really want anyone to get in the way. That’s where it would be tough for me. We’re trying to work and trying to put our best product on the field and they have to have a camera here and a camera there. The publicity probably isn’t bad, but unfortunately it gets in the way. So in essence, I wouldn’t be for it.”
Saints quarterback Derek Carr, along with tight end Foster Moreau and safety Johnathan Abram, were all on the Raiders team featured on “Hard Knocks” in 2019.
Moreau was a rookie at the time and was busy trying to learn the playbook while staying out of the spotlight.
Carr, meanwhile, says he loved the experience and was complimentary of HBO’s film crew. If he was calling an audible or saying something that he didn’t want to be shown, he’d signal to them and they would walk away.
“They weren’t intrusive or trying to give secrets away,” Carr said. “They were trying to tell a story and let the fans in on what it looks like, even a small picture of what it looks like. I think they do a great job.”
But not even that is enough for Carr to want his current team to be featured on the show.
“Is it my favorite thing to do? No,” Carr said. “I’d rather there be no cameras and I just go work and we go win football games. If we have to, we’ll make the most of it.”
HBO will have to decide and make an announcement between now and the start of NFL training camps in late July.
It’s a four-team race that the Saints hope they don’t win.
They don’t want the lights, the cameras or the action.
Jamaal Williams made it loud and clear.