HBO‘s Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Buffalo Bills airs its finale Tuesday as the NFL team continues its quest toward a first-ever Super Bowl championship.
The sports documentary series’ 25th season featured the Bills for the first time, as viewers got a closer look at the league’s reigning MVP Josh Allen, coach Sean McDermott and such standout players as Dion Dawkins and James Cook. The NFL season kicks off Thursday.
During a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Hard Knocks producer and lead director Pat Harris — who happens to be a lifelong Bills fan as a native of Rochester, New York — discusses his unrealized dream to film at Allen and Hailee Steinfeld‘s recent nuptials and how the show’s team decided to spotlight certain players over others.
Buffalo Bills offensive tackle and four-time Pro Bowler Dion Dawkins
Timothy T Ludwig/Getty Images
Were there any Bills cuts this season that were the most painful for you to see?
Cut day is always a challenge for our crew, but it’s especially difficult when it involves the guys we’ve developed personal relationships with. Guys like [tight end] Zach Davidson, [defensive tackle] Casey Rodgers and [wide receiver] K.J. Hamler were tough, but hopefully they can land on a team soon.
Was there any chance of filming at Josh’s wedding?
No, I don’t think so. We’ve tried with other players of all different tiers and statuses and have never had any luck. That would have been a pipe dream. I would have loved to do it, but definitely can understand why that didn’t happen.
Was there talk of the Killers making an appearance this season [with their song “Mr. Brightside” getting played during Bills games]?
We tried. They were in Rochester, and the way the Bills schedule unfolded, they weren’t able to make it work because they had curfew that night that they had to be back for. But we thought there was going to be a chance. We were starting to gear up for it, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. We were keeping the option open if they did make their way back to Buffalo, knowing that it’s such an iconic connection within the NFL right now.
With the show calling “Mr. Brightside” a team anthem, there was fan conversation over whether that was a slight to “Shout” [which includes team-centric lyrics for the Isley Brothers song]. Was there a licensing reason why “Shout” wasn’t included?
It definitely wasn’t intentional. As a lifelong Bills fan, I was well aware of that. I think it was a licensing [issue]. In different pieces within NFL Films, I’ve experienced that the “Shout” song itself is very difficult to clear, with being such an older song. So that was part of that. I definitely had a couple friends asking. With the way we phrased it, people probably interpreted it that way, but that was not our intention at all.
Is it tricky to know when to spotlight a certain player?
Certainly that’s probably one of the hardest parts of this job. I’ve been doing it for 10 years, and as much as I like to think I have a good eye for identifying potential characters or just moments, it’s nearly impossible to try to predict what person will show up and when we should introduce them. You kind of have some idea of who has a longer arc, probably similar to a movie script. Maybe it’s a 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-episode arc. Other times, we’ve had players pop up, and it’s just a one-episode thing.
Coming in, we knew someone like K.J. Hamler has a very big personality. One of the funniest moments in episode one was him with the little scooter, and we had no idea that he’d show up to camp with that. So that’s where we just adjust on the fly to say, “Hey, maybe K.J. is more of a character for this next episode because of the scooter.” Somebody like Joe Andreessen — if you know the Bills, you know “Buffalo Joe” from last year was an incredible story. But for us, it’s like, “Well, what does year two look like with Buffalo Joe?”
We never want to copy and paste the story from a previous year. So that was part of it with Damar [Hamlin] of, what is Damar’s present-day story? We were able to collaborate with him to tell a pretty unique angle of where his career is moving forward.
What went into deciding not to do an offseason Hard Knocks earlier this year? Were the Giants not happy with how that worked out?
I’m not actually sure. I didn’t work on that show, unfortunately. I’m just mainly at summer Hard Knocks. There are so many [Hard Knocks iterations per year,] with NFL Films now having three. I’ve done this one for a long time [and] worked on the in-season briefly from a different vantage point.
Which team would you love to get to spotlight on a future season?
If there was still a team [training] in Napa [in California wine country,] I’d say them! Early on in my career, I used to try and play the guessing game of where we might go and where I wanted to be, but I just go with the flow now. It has been enjoyable the last few years being further north. The weather is a little more enjoyable for the crew.
