Hard Knocks

This season of 'Hard Knocks' wraps up tonight with the fifth episode of HBO's probe into the Jets off-season, training camp, and preseason. When I found out the Jets would be the subject of 2010's installment of the show which has featured the Dallas Cowboys, and Cincinnati Bengals in previous years, I was excited to get a closer look at a team creating more buzz than any in recent memory who hadn't won the Super Bowl the previous year (maybe the most ever for a team coming off a 9 win season). Rich Cimini wrote an article for ESPNNewyork.com today detailing the top moments of the first four episodes, and speculating on what could be in store for tonight. As a person who has followed the team very closely for the better part of the last decade, the show hasn't provided what I thought it would. It has feels like my dirty laundry has been aired for the whole country to see. I expected to be given an in depth look at a title contending team with more practice footage, more film study, and overall more football. What it has done is create a bulls-eye big enough to cover Rex Ryan's back and his mouth. Every episode seems to be spotlighting some scenario or situation that will be blown out of proportion the following day by the 'cherry picking' likes of Mike Francesa and the rest of the national media. From Rex's foul mouth, to Jason Taylor's punctuality, it seems that a large chunk of each hour long block has been taken up by a story intended on embarrassing the Jets. Cimini references in his article a scene from one episode in which cornerback Antonio Cromartie is asked to name his eight children and seemingly struggles in doing so. Cromartie claims that he was asked to re-shoot the scene the way it aired to intentionally make it look like he was struggling. Some thoughts that will probably emerge from the five week circus that was Hard Knocks will likely be, Rex Ryan is too simple minded to curse less than once a sentence, Mark Sanchez is immature and not ready to be the quarterback on a contender (and is nicknamed "Nacho" by Bart Scott), the Revis holdout was some sort of ratings hoax, and that the Jets are eventually going to have their smug smiles and brash cockiness jammed down their throats at some point this season. Every opposing player who has seen the show is undoubtedly waiting to get a piece of the team with the biggest mouth in the league. Where was all the football?

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/jets/post/_/id/1586/hard-knocks-a-look-back-a-look-ahead