The slow time is over.
In two days, the New York Jets become the first team to open training camp. They’re getting the early start because they play in the Hall of Fame game in Canton, on Thursday, August 3. (Their opponents, the Browns, open camp on Friday.)
For the Jets, the launch of camp includes the arrival of Hard Knocks cameras and microphones. It’s well established that the Jets don’t want the assignment. If the show hopes to maximize interest, NFL Films should fully embrace the tension, featuring (for example) scenes between producers and Jets officials regarding the limits of filming or any other points of contention between the two sides.
At some point, the Jets just need to deal with it. it’s a distraction. Football is rife with them. On every play from scrimmage, each player is facing a distraction in the form of the man across from him.
No, the Jets didn’t want to do it. There are plenty of things the rest of us don’t want to do. Those things always go a little (or a lot) easier when we simply accept that we just need to do them.
The show will still be a lot better if the Jets’ resistance becomes a running theme, especially if new quarterback Aaron Rodgers actively avoids all cameras — or maybe even gives them a one-finger salute, as Bengals linebacker James Harrison routinely did a decade ago.
