Opinion: Have the Browns Caught the “Hard Knocks” Curse?

By: Robert Huff

The Cleveland Browns will be the featured team on the 2018 Emmy award-winning show “Hard Knocks”, a joint venture of the NFL and HBO. Now, I know that last sentence will make a lot of fans scream “Oh No!”. Hopefully, this article can help ease your fears toward the possible distraction that the show is perceived to be.

The series was created in 2001 by Mark Callner. The show has been narrated by veteran actor Liev Schreiber the entire series, with the exception of the 2007 season that featured the Kansas City Chiefs and was narrated by Chiefs fan and actor Paul Rudd. The first two seasons featured the Baltimore Ravens and the Dallas Cowboys before taking a five-year hiatus and returning for four more seasons featuring the Kansas City Chiefs, Dallas Cowboys (2nd time), Cincinnati Bengals, and the New York Jets. Due to a labor strike situation in 2011, the show took another year hiatus. Returning in 2012 through the present-day featuring the Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals (2nd time), Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Los Angeles Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and now your Cleveland Browns.

Despite the difficulty in teams willing to take part, NFL Films announced on July 18, 2013 that it had signed a “multiyear” deal with HBO to continue making the show. In October 2013, the NFL announced that, in the absence of a team volunteering to participate in Hard Knocks, the league could force a team to participate. Teams are exempt from having to participate in three circumstances: (1) They haven’t appeared in the last ten years (we never have), (2) They have a first-year head coach(Hue Jackson is going into his third), or (3) They reached the playoffs in either of the past two seasons (Duh? Going back-to-back like Drake with the number one overall picks the past two seasons explains that). These rules eliminated 24 teams from airing in 2017. Since the Buccaneers did it last season, the remaining teams included for mandatory inclusion are the 49ers, Broncos, Browns, Chargers, Ravens, and Redskins.

On May 17th, 2018, it was announced the Cleveland Browns will be the team featured for the 2018 season premiering August 7th, 2018. “ The stakes are tremendously high in Cleveland, which makes the Browns an ideal partner on Hard Knocks,” NFL Films senior executive Ross Ketover said in HBO’s announcement. We’re looking forward to showing NFL fans around the world what the Haslam’s, John Dorsey, Hue Jackson and the coaching staff are doing to rebuild the team and reboot one of the most iconic franchises in sports.”

“I’ve been a part of Hard Knocks and when you experience it first hand, you come to appreciate the inside look it really gives fans,” Jackson said. “We are excited about what we are building within our organization and feel good about the progress we have made this offseason.”

Some issues to be covered in the 2018 season include #1 overall draft pick Baker Mayfield’s first NFL experiences, Josh Gordon’s first start to a season since his second substance abuse policy violation in 2014, Hue Jackson’s position as head coach and its dependency on winning more games and giving up the play-calling duties to new offensive coordinator Todd Haley, and the fired-up defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.

So after all of that, here is the final line of results produced by the teams that participated on Hard Knocks:

Wins: 86

Losses: 90

Winning Seasons: 6

Playoff Appearances: 5

Playoff Wins: 3

Five of the teams documented improved their record in the season immediately following the show, five finished with a worse record. In addition, five of the teams made the playoffs in that next season- but four of the five already had winning records the season before Hard Knocks showed up.

What this all means is that there is no Hard Knocks curse – It doesn’t help or hurt your season. Especially in the case of the Cleveland Browns, who are coming off of one win in the last two seasons and are fresh off of only the fifth winless season in the history of the league.

But that’s the beauty of it Browns fans. You can only go up from here.