When professional football comes back to Tinseltown after more than two decades away, the cameras follow.
Before they kick off the regular season on Sept. 12, the Los Angeles Rams will already have become prime-time TV regulars as stars of HBO’s “Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Los Angeles Rams,” produced in collaboration with NFL Films. The series debuted Aug. 9.
The league’s signature documentary program has had unlimited access to the team this summer as its players and personnel have been hard at work at training camp on the campus of UC Irvine after their return to Los Angeles from St. Louis.
“Hard Knocks” also offers a Hollywood training camp for the teams’ newly minted stars – 2016 overall first-round draft pick Jared Goff at quarterback and 2016 AP Offensive Rookie of the Year Todd Gurley – as they adjust to the limelight associated with playing in the country’s second-largest media market.
“We have one of the youngest teams in the NFL,” said Kevin Demoff, the team’s chief operating officer. “I think from a brand perspective and an organizational perspective, it’s a great reminder that wherever you go in Los Angeles, there are cameras everywhere.”
HBO gave “Hard Knocks,” which has won 14 Emmy Awards in its 10-season run, the star treatment this year when it kicked off its 11th season last week. The cable network, NFL Films, and the Rams hosted a special red (gold) carpet premiere Aug. 9 at downtown’s L.A. Live complex with a screening, panel discussion, and after-party at the Conga Room club. Former Rams player Eric Dickerson was in attendance, along with General Manager Les Snead and HBO Sports principals to celebrate the show and the team’s return to Los Angeles.
“There’s been a ton of media attention and local fan attention,” said Demoff. “It’s a great way to introduce both the community and the nation to our players.”
Introduction needed
Such an introduction might be necessary. In a memorable scene from the show’s premiere, Gurley – who rushed for more yards than any other rookie player in the league last year – told reporters that people still don’t recognize him on the street except as “the guy from the burger commercial,” referencing his TV spot with actor Jay Mohr for Carl’s Jr.
“The players have been great. They understand they are football players, not actors,” said Jeff Fisher, Rams head coach.
Still, the backdrop of a city embracing a team of stars in the making is exactly what the producers at HBO and NFL Films hoped for when the Rams were tapped for the show. Neither players nor staff are compensated for being on the show, which is essentially a marketing vehicle for the team and National Football League. This year, as the league returns to a major market after a two-decade absence, it is an important vehicle, according to Demoff.
“They’re adapting to their new environment and new city, which offers us a new and different storyline,” said Matt Dissinger, who is directing this season and has been working on the series for nine years. He noted that most teams featured in the past have returned to a familiar place with familiar teammates. He called the transitions being featured this year refreshing.
The 36-person crew for the “Hard Knocks” series will shoot more than 1,500 hours of footage during the course of the series, while a team of about 45 people log and edit it. Cameras and sound crews have open access to players and coaches before, during, and after practice. Audio and film footage from the coaches’ meeting room discussions, players’ living quarters, and locker room talks are all fair game, pending final approval from Fisher, Snead, and Demoff to confirm nothing shown would give an opponent a competitive advantage.
The crews follow the team through training camp as the squad is trimmed from 80 players to just 35.
“It’s all about stakes,” said Dissinger. “This team is very young, so the stakes are high. There aren’t as many established veterans and many of them are fighting for a spot on the final team roster.”
Stakes are high for the show, too. The Rams lack the well-known, charismatic veterans of teams that have been featured in years past. But HBO has done well with the series previously.
Ratings from its premiere last week were not available, but last season’s five-part “Hard Knocks” series featuring the Houston Texans posted the second-highest viewership level for the show since 2002, averaging 4.4 million viewers an episode, a 20 percent increase from 2014. (The Texas team went on to win its division.)
Producers declined to say what this year’s production budget was, other than to say funding for the series had increased each year since its debut in 2001.
Used to attention
HBO isn’t the only cable network to get in on the Rams action. NBCUniversal’s E! Network will premiere its own “Hollywood & Football” docuseries in November, which will follow six of the Rams players and their spouses, including wide receiver Kenny Britt and his wife, as they get acclimated to life in Los Angeles.
“E! has a track record of success with pop culture programming centered in the world of sports,” said Jeff Olde, executive vice president of programming and development for the network, in a statement. “This series will capture the off-the-field perspective of one of football’s most anticipated and high-profile events as the Rams return to L.A.”
Despite all the cameras, the Rams went 7-9 last year and in the end all that matters is winning games. Long after the “Hard Knocks” cameras have left, the Rams will still have something to prove on the field when they meet up with rivals at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum this year.
“All that matters are those 16 football games,” said Snead.
Win or lose, the team has already connected with some Angelenos. More than 10,000 fans came out to the first team practice in Irvine last month, according to a Rams spokeswoman, and 25,000 came out for the team’s scrimmage at the Coliseum on Aug. 6.
Season tickets sold out within seven weeks.
