Hard Knocks and St. Farve

NFL Films is sheer greatness. Anytime I see anything on ESPN from NFL Films, I make a point to stop down and watch it. The slow motion, the dramatic music, the low tone narration…it’s just all great. Listening to John Facenda talk about Vince Lombardi or Tom Landry is almost poetic. So leave it to HBO to team up with NFL Films to make an all access series about NFL training camp. I’ve watched all the all the “Hard Knocks” (Baltimore, Dallas, KC, Dallas again) and each were great in their own rights. The last time the Cowboys were on “Hard Knocks”, Dave Campo was their head coach and Emmitt was still on the team. Now that they are again the subject of the series, many things have changed but America’s Team is still America’s Team.

On last night’s initial episode of “Hard Knocks”, the curtain was pulled back a bit and we got to hear conversations between Jerry and the agents of Terry Glenn and Felix Jones. I was a bit surprised at the conversation with Glenn’s agent because it wasn’t as amiable as we were all led to believe. However, it reinforced the fact that the WR corps has little proven depth behind TO Owen (who took full advantage of the time on HBO to plug a new business venture, TO Tees). They interviewed Patrick Crayton and replayed his dropped pass vs. the Giants and to tell you the truth, I had forgotten how painful that was. I actually yelled at the tv, again…my wife thought I was loony.

Also featured were the on field battles between TO Owens and Pac Man Jones. Jones looks smaller than I thought he was (even my wife commented on that) but when he gets the rust knocked off his game (and IF he can keep his nose clean) he is going to be good. Owens got the best of Pac Man though so at least it shows that TO is ready for the season. The first preseason game is on Saturday against the Chargers and even though the starters probably won’t play but a quarter, I’m giddy to see some football.

And the Brett Farve saga took another turn today as he was dealt to Broadway and will be playing for the NY Jets (which is ironic because he is on the cover of Madden '09 in his GB uni). The trade was for a conditional draft pick and depending on how much Farve plays and how well the team does, the higher the draft pick Green Bay will receive. IF the Jets go to the Super Bowl (which is HIGHLY doubtful), Green Bay will receive a 1st round pick from the Jets. So I guess that St. Farve will get a chance to prove how good he still is, or isn’t. However, I really wanted to see him playing in Minnesota or Chicago. It would have been delicious to see Farve going back to Green Bay playing for one of their hated rivals. It would have been interesting to see how the fandom at Lambeau would have reacted to that. I guess we’ll never know now unless the Jets somehow get to play the Pack next year. Now that’s worth praying for.