New York Giants
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The New York Giants could very much appear on the widely-popular HBO series ‘Hard Knocks’ this upcoming summer.

Every summer, the NFL and HBO team up for the series ‘Hard Knocks.’ A widely-popular series, “Hard Knocks” produces five hour-long episodes documenting an NFL team’s training camp and preseason period.

For this year, there are five teams the NFL has their eye on for who could star in the HBO show, per Dan Hanzus of NFL.com. The Oakland Raiders, the San Francisco 49ers, the Washington Redskins, the Detroit Lions, and yes, the New York Giants.

There are three rules for appearing on the show, and the Giants fit all of them. First, you can’t have a head coach entering his first year as head coach for the respective team.

Giants head coach Pat Shurmur will be entering his second year as the front-man for the Big Blue coaching staff in 2019. Second, you can’t have a playoff berth in the last two seasons. The Giants missed the playoffs in 2017 and 2018, only garnering eight combined wins in those two years.

And lastly, you can’t have been the basis for ‘Hard Knocks’ in the past 10 years. The Giants organization have never been the star of the show, ever.

“The Giants are one of the NFL’s signature franchises, and as such, they’ve always seemed to be above the fray of — gasp — reality television,” writes Hanzus. “Then again, it’s not like we’re talking about a “Keeping Up with the Kardashians”-style production ambushing team employees in monocles and white gloves sipping out of diamond-encrusted flutes. Unless that is the scene, in which case, the Giants have to be the choice. In addition to the team’s big-ticket appeal, there are some great stories to track, chief among them the looming end of the Eli [Manning] era. We could have a young hotshot to push the old QB, which would be extra spicy. There’s also reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Saquon Barkley plus that Odell [Beckham] guy everyone loves to talk about. Sign me up.”

Giants fans should be all in for this.

I can see why owner John Mara wouldn’t be a fan of it though. The Giants are an organization that’s all about football and no distractions.

Hard Knocks could very much be a distraction for them. However, we’ll worry about that if they actually do get selected for the show.

Ryan Honey is a staff writer and host of the Wide Right Podcast.