NFL finds a way to annoy an entire division with Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North

OK, but why?

We are long past the point of Hard Knocks unveiling any kind of unique take or information about the NFL teams it chronicles. Most seasons bring the same challenges against the backdrop of slightly different characters. Players get cut, coaches make difficult decisions, affable weirdos turn into local favorites and the cycle persists for another year.

This has led the league to find new tweaks to an old formula. In 2021, this meant adding a second version of the show following a single team in the middle of their season rather than just the preseason. But since that also got old quickly, the league and its broadcast partners have come up with a new way to butcher this pig without wasting the squeal.

Behold; an in-season Hard Knocks that promises four times the rote inner workings of an NFL franchise:

Go behind the scenes with an entire NFL division for the first time ever.#HardKnocks In-Season with the AFC North premieres December 3 on @StreamOnMax. pic.twitter.com/xsPbilzv1N

— NFL (@NFL) June 17, 2024

Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North will cover the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cincinnati Bengals, Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns as they prep for a playoff push in the league’s toughest division. This will be, stunningly, the third version of Hard Knocks to air in 2024 along with a preseason look at the New York Giants and an in-season look at the Chicago Bears. If you wanted to hear overused cliches about taking the season one game at a time or see whether or not practice squad players plan to squander their chance at the big time (they aren’t), you now have three different opportunities.

What will a four-team Hard Knocks tell us about the NFL that we haven’t learned in 21 seasons of the behind-the-scenes show? Probably nothing! But at the very least a look at the AFC North will provide a glance at the inner workings behind the Browns’ ongoing frustration with Deshaun Watson or the outright exhaustion of the Steelers defense after their third straight 9-7 victory as Russell Wilson does lunges all the way back to the locker room.

The NFL is stuck in its own cycle, determined to press the limits of its own profitability by being “TOO MUCH” at all times. Commissioner Roger Goodell is spending the waning years of his tenure searching for the limit at which fans will stop consuming his content, but years of data suggest that limit does not exist. Only moving Sunday Ticket to YouTubeTV and charging a truly stupid price for it has done anything to dent the league’s profitability.

Which is to say if Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North is a ratings hit, the NFL will soon have camera crews working overtime in every locker room in the midst of a 21-week season. We’ll see the inner workings of each team’s flight to International Series games in Sydney, Jeddah and Beijing. We’ll get the drama of a star player’s reaction to being injured in Ultra Super Wild Card weekend during a Friday afternoon game (his 20th of the year).

This is not Hard Knocks: In Season with the AFC North’s fault. But it is yet another sign the league won’t stop monetizing every ounce of content it can find until its players, and fans, are completely exhausted.