BroBible
In 2024, Hard Knocks branched out a bit after the Giants became the first team to allow a camera crew to get a behind-the-scenes look at what went down in the offseason. However, they are also currently the last team to get that treatment courtesy of a viral moment that may have killed off the spinoff.
There’s only so much NFL teams can do to avoid being featured on Hard Knocks, the show that aired on HBO for the first time in 2001 and has historically been dedicated to following teams coming off an underwhelming season as they prepare for the next one at training camp.
The New York Giants spent more than two decades successfully dodging a fate that owner John Mara made it clear he wanted to avoid to the point where he said he’d be dead before it happened. However, he was still alive and kicking when we learned the franchise had agreed to become the focus of a Hard Knocks spinoff chronicling its front office as it navigated the offseason in 2024.
That version did not return in 2025, and we have some insight into why thanks to an NFL Films executive who confirmed what many people had already assumed.
The Giants made a number of moves ahead of the 2024 campaign, but there wasn’t a single one that ended up being more consequential than the decision to let Saquon Barkley walk in free agency—one that resulted in him signing with the Eagles before he had the monster season that played a major role in New York’s biggest rival bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Philadelphia.
Mara said he’d have “a tough time sleeping” if Barkley ended up signing with the Birds while Hard Knock cameras were capturing footage in the office of Giants GM Joe Schoen—a clip that got plenty of use during the most recent season and inspired a commercial where the running back trolled the owner over that remark.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eKDjYbad62Y?feature=share
The Giants knew there was a chance the decision to let Hard Knocks invade their facility could age poorly, and based on what NFL Films exec Keith Cossrow recently shared, the team wasn’t the only entity that had to deal with the fallout.
Cossrow, who serves as the Head of Content at NFL Films, recently appeared on The Sports Media Podcast to chat with Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal, and he pointed to that clip as a major reason Hard Knocks was unable to find a team to get the offseason treatment in 2025, saying:
**“When that one or two clips about Saquon got removed and isolated and blew up on social media—and as we’ve seen, have taken on a life of their own—that certainly gives people pause in the NFL and in every other walk of life...
