HBO's 'Hard Knocks' might be a casualty of the lockout - Ingles

When all labor matters were finally settled, the only significant football-related casualty of the NFL lockout was the Hall of Fame game, a Bears-Rams exhibition scheduled for Aug. 7, but canceled last week by commissioner Roger Goodell.
But something far more entertaining was probably lost somewhere along the way while the owners and players were playing their games of rhetoric.

It’s very possible - though not official just yet - that there will be no “Hard Knocks’’ on HBO this season.

Although there have been reports that the program, a mesmerizing peek behind the curtain of an NFL franchise’s training camp, will not return, there remains a sliver of hope at the network that a team could come forward over the weekend and salvage the program for this season.

Time is short with camps gradually getting underway, however, and the general reluctance of NFL coaches and executives to permit such access suggests such a lucky break for fans of the show is unlikely.

It’s a letdown for HBO Sports, too, and not just because last year’s edition, which won three Sports Emmy awards, averaged 4.6 million viewers per episode, and made a star out of Jets coach/snack aficionado Rex Ryan, was such a buzzy hit. The network’s sports branch is in somewhat of a transitional mode with the impending departure of Ross Greenburg, who spent 33 years at the network, the last 10 as HBO Sports president.

Although Greenburg resigned last week - reportedly under pressure in part because of losing popular fighter Manny Pacquiao’s recent fight with Shane Mosley to Showtime - his legacy extends beyond the 51 Sports Emmy awards and eight Peabody awards won during his tenure.

One might need to borrow Bryant Gumbel’s ubiquitous notepad in order to list all of the innovative and entertaining programming HBO produced in the Greenburg era. He was a driving force behind successes in different genres, whether it was the “24/7’’ behind-the-scenes look at the Capitals and Penguins, to its acclaimed documentaries (most recently the nuanced, thought-provoking “The Curious Case of Curt Flood’’), the newsmagazine program “Real Sports’’ hosted by Gumbel, to its ongoing and determined commitment to boxing.

Rick Bernstein, the executive producer of HBO Sports, has taken over responsibility for the programming in Greenburg’s stead. With plenty of fresh programming in the works, there is no urgency to find a successor, though there will be a search.

Here’s hoping that whoever it is, he or she doesn’t alter much, beyond reviving “Hard Knocks,’’ in 2012 if able. When it comes to sports, HBO is one channel that shouldn’t be changed. This article was written by Chad Finn and appeared in The Boston Globe.