So much for seeing rookie quarterback Johnny Manziel on HBO during his first NFL training camp. The Cleveland Browns declined the opportunity to appear on this year's edition of "Hard Knocks", coach Mike Pettine told reporters this weekend. The league and the premium cable network made their initial offer before the Browns drafted Manziel, and were spurned again by the Browns after they drafted him No. 22 overall in May.
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It's no surprise, given how guarded the team has been with national media access in the earliest practices with Manziel. Pettine also referenced how the organization wasn't even comfortable with such camera attention during the draft.
It's also the Browns' right, as Pettine's status as a first-year head coach of a team gave him a predetermined "Hard Knocks" out for 2014. The NFL can't force teams with first-year coaches, playoff trips over the past two seasons or a previous appearance on "Hard Knocks" to accept.
As Pettine himself had been on the show as the New York Jets' defensive coordinator in 2010, he's not totally ruling out for the future, however.
"There are positives and negatives to doing it," Pettine said. "It's not something I would say we'd never do, partly because the league can make us do it."
Manziel's ups and downs in his competition against Brian Hoyer would have been fun to watch on HBO. The potential of what he might do off the field in camp could have been even more amusing. But the Browns wanted to avoid just that -- a half-Kardashian type feel to the reality show. This allows Pettine, his staff and his players to focus what they need most to get the Browns back on the national map: Winning football.
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There are eight teams, however, that cannot say no to "Hard Knocks". The longer shots include the Arizona Cardinals, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars and St. Louis Rams.
Expect the NFL and HBO to instead covet one of the four big-ticket teams: the Chicago Bears, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders or Pittsburgh Steelers. Expect the Cincinnati Bengals' successor to be announced sometime in the next week.
