Rams, Chargers to co-star on ‘Hard Knocks’ this summer

The new NFL TV season will rise in the West.

The Rams and Chargers will be featured on “Hard Knocks,” the first time teams have shared star billing in the HBO series that takes viewers behind the scenes at pro football training camps, the producers announced Thursday.

NFL Films camera crews will come to Southern California in the next few weeks, according to the producers, to begin following coaches and players competing for starting jobs and roster spots.

One theme that’s likely to link the two L.A. teams: Both are moving into the same new home, the multi-billion-dollar SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

The five one-hour “Hard Knocks” episodes are scheduled to be get their first showings on Tuesday nights at 10 p.m. PDT starting Aug. 11.

As of Wednesday, producers hadn’t said what happens if the coronavirus pandemic forces NFL training camps to be delayed much past the current late July reporting dates.

This will be the Chargers’ first appearance and the Rams’ second on “Hard Knocks,” which has been produced in 14 previous seasons since its beginning in 2001.

But Chargers coach Anthony Lynn does have experience with “Hard Knocks,” since he was the New York Jets’ running backs coach when they were featured in 2010.

“Broadcasting your internal business all over the world isn’t something you regularly want to do, but in a year with as many challenges as this one has had, I’m glad we can be part of bringing football back to the fans this summer,” Lynn said.

The Rams were on “Hard Knocks” in 2016, which was their first year back from St. Louis and quarterback Jared Goff’s rookie season.

Goff gave the 2016 series a memorable moment when, in one scene, the Cal product was revealed to be unsure if the sun rises in the East or West.

That series was a critical success.

Tom Hoffarth, who covered sports media for the Southern California News Group publications then, wrote that “Hard Knocks” “aims to shine a light on the process of how this Rams roster will be formed and how positions are won and lost, (and) also manages to inject some light-hearted moments that give it the human balance of how work and play factor into the equation.”

“Hard Knocks” has won 18 Sports Emmys.

Trying to head off concerns that teams would be distracted or give away secrets when cameras follow them not only on practice fields but also in meeting and training rooms and sometimes living quarters, HBO notes that seven of the past 10 teams featured on “Hard Knocks” went on to improve their records over the previous season. In 2016, the Rams fired Coach Jeff Fisher after starting 4-9, finished the season 4-12 and were last in the NFL in points scored at 14 points per game.

The Rams went 9-7, the Chargers 5-11 last season.