Report: Texans To Be Featured On HBO's Hard Knocks

The Houston Texans have a big announcement to make.

According to ESPN’s Tania Ganguli, the Houston Texans will be featured on HBO’s long-time running, award-winning reality series:

The Texans were the frontrunners to be featured in the series along with the eight other finalists.

Those teams were: the Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Saint Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans and the Washington Redskins.

That’s quite an awesome feat considering the teams that they were running up against.

The main thing the Texans have going for them is that they’ve never been featured on the show before and they continue to be one of the most marketable, successful NFL franchises to date.

That’s a definite considered who they were running up against.

The Texans have scheduled a press conference for 1:30 p.m. CDT which will likely entail the official announcement.

Although that hasn’t always translated to their performance on the football field, this will give the franchise plenty of exposure around the world with HBO being a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc., a burgeoning, global brand.

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I don’t have to be the one to tell that we’re about to see plenty of J.J. Watt in this series as he’s about as camera shy as television news reporter.

The Texans do get the honor of being the star of the show as it enters its 10th season on the air.

As per the Hard Knocks unofficial rules, a team cannot appear on the show if they haven’t been to playoffs in the last two seasons, don’t have a new head coach and have not yet appeared on the show.

Strangely enough, the Texans fit all three qualifications when they only have to meet only one attribute.

Texans’ owner Bob McNair and Texans’ general manager Rick Smith have been strong advocates of the franchise being the headliner for such a storied show.

I’m sure Bill O’Brien would rather not have the cameras around but he’s used to it.

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When he was the head coach at Penn State, his team was featured on ESPN’s Training Days in 2013, an hour-long documentary about the team he was leading.

But that was just one appearance, this team will be on the airwaves weekly throughout the season which is a different kind of ball game.

Let’s hope O’Brien’s nerves hold together throughout the rigors of the season with constant motion of cameras around!

The Texans were invited to participate for the 2012 season but then-head coach Gary Kubiak declined the offer because he felt the immense amount of cameras in their face would be a distraction.

There is a certain stigma of this news, from particularly Dallas Cowboys fans — it has been said that there is a type of “curse” when the team is on the show.

Just look back at the Atlanta Falcons, who were last year’s featured team that went on to sport a lackluster 6-10 record for 2014. The Cowboys were featured in 2002 and collected a 5-11 record.

But history reflects otherwise.

The Cincinnati Bengals, featured in 2009 and the 2013 seasons, sported a 10-6 and 11-5 record respectively.

Even the 2010 New York Jets, one of the series highest-rated seasons, sported a 11-5 record when they were the team of the hour.

Report: Houston Texans To Be Featured On HBO’s Hard Knocks

By Brian K. Patterson | May 27, 2015

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