Anyone who has been around the Atlanta Falcons the last two seasons knows that the camera loves linebacker Sean Weatherspoon. (It could also be said that Weatherspoon loves the camera.)
If the Falcons accepted an invitation from HBO to be the subject of their series "Hard Knocks" -- the all-access sports documentary-style series made in conjunction with NFL Films -- the rest of the country as well might learn about the mutual love affair between Weatherspoon and the camera.
The Falcons reportedly have been offered the starring role in this year's series. The present is a time of deliberation in the team's Flowery Branch headquarters as to whether to accept. Many considerations will go into the final decision. Among the most important ones is how (if it all) it would affect the on-field product in terms of wins and losses.
The Falcons will have a new offensive coordinator and a new defensive coordinator entering the season, plus a number of new position coaches, perhaps most significantly a new offensive line coach. It would be one thing if this were 2011, as the Falcons were coming off a 13-3 season in which they posted the top regular season record in the NFC, and had virtually the same coaching staff for four straight seasons.
But 2012 is a different animal. More than being a distraction, would the cameras harm the coaches from getting their work done? Would they allow the new coaches to feel and be themselves as they embark on installing new offenses and defenses and learning new personnel and personalities at a potentially pivotal time?
Among the chief actors in any "Hard Knocks" series is the head coach. The Falcons' Mike Smith is a serious man, not inclined to the on-camera clownish antics of the New York Jets' Rex Ryan, whose team was the most recent subject of the show when it last aired in 2010. (It did not run last year because the late end to the lockout did not allow enough time to pick a team.)
Smith has a lighter side to him that he occasionally shows to reporters but what side would he show for "Hard Knocks"? Would he clam up and not give a representation of himself that would put him in the best light?
In the decision-making process, owner Arthur Blank obviously has a big -- and perhaps the final -- say. Anyone who has ever watched a Falcons game is aware that Blank enjoys the spotlight, as his fourth-quarter visits to the sideline usually catch the camera's gaze. But more than attention, Blank wants to win. Would he agree to participate in "Hard Knocks" if he thought it would hurt the team's chances of winning?
When it comes to making this call, oowners and coaches are not always on the same page. FOXSports.com's Adam Schein reported last week that Jets owner Woody Johnson wants to do it again, but that Ryan is opposed. So far, Ryan seems to be winning that battle.
Then there is the business and marketing side. With Smith's record of success over the last four years, the Falcons have rebounded from the traumas of the 2007 season when Michael Vick and Bobby Petrino left the them in the lurch. As a result, the business and marketing sides also have benefited. The Falcons have not blacked out any games in recent years and have employed a well received marketing campaign starring actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Locally, the Falcons' brand is doing fine. But what about nationally? Every team in the NFL strives to be a national brand like the Pittsburgh Steelers or the Green Bay Packers or the Dallas Cowboys. Ideally, the Falcons would be coming off a run to the Super Bowl and could use participation in "Hard Knocks" as a launching point to greater opportunities.
Coming off a 10-6 season in which they lost in the first round of the playoffs is not the same. Falcons chief marketing officer Jim Smith said "Hard Knocks" could benefit national brand-building -- under the right circumstances.
"In order for it to really be successful, everyone has to do it for the right reasons," said Smith, who would only talk about what the show does generally for brand-building opportunities and not about the team's potential participation. "That is marketing, that is coaching, that football operations, that is ownership. They have to have the feeling that they're ‘all in it together' and feel it's going to have the positive impact on the organization. They have to understand the effect it's going to have on their franchise."
NFL teams love to shroud themselves in secrecy. From requiring media members to agree to policies regarding what they can and cannot report at practice to the opaque information surrounding injury information, it's something of an irony that the league is so successful despite its teams and coaches being so media gun-shy so often.
Which is why fans love "Hard Knocks." It lifts the veil on personnel decisions and meetings that the average fan would never otherwise get to witness. For those with the NFL addiction -- of which there are seemingly endless millions -- it's riveting stuff.
But in the end, the show also is something of a preseason and summer confection amid the tedium of the August sporting scene. If NFL preseason news amounts to mainly a list of injuries, features on players soon to be cut and the drip, drip of positional battles (which may or may not be key), "Hard Knocks" provides a dash of drama while humanizing some of the personalities involved as baseball season grinds towards its inexorable conclusion.
A Falcons spokesman said discussions are ongoing and that the team has yet to make a decision. It will announce it when it does.
So the suspense will linger a while longer. In the end, how long-lasting is the effect of "Hard Knocks" on a franchise? By Sept. 10, most everyone has moved on. By then, they're talking about the games.
