The Netflix x NFL Football partnered docuseries—Quarterback—will release next month and got a new trailer, while HBOs Hard Knocks is having problems finding a team willing to play ball.
For American football fans across the world, the summer months can be slow-paced and tedious waiting for the next season to begin in the fall. Luckily, some TV shows have sprung up, allowing for something for diehards to watch to satiate those needs, like the upcoming docuseries, Quarterback, which is the first-ever partnership between the NFL and Netflix. This follows suit with the other football shows, Ryan Reynolds’ led Welcome to Wrexham and Natalie Portman’s Angel City.
Following last season’s trials and tribulations of quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota, Quarterback got a new trailer and a July 12th, 2023 release date.
With NFL legend Peyton Manning on board as well as executive producer, Quarterback looks to be an exciting new show for fans to enjoy, as the eight-episode series follows “quarterbacks who, for the first time ever, are mic’d up for every single game, from the beginning of the 2022 season to its conclusion.” While Netflix looks to have a good first go with the NFL, some long-time partners are having a little bit more trouble.
HBOs Hard Knocks, which was first created in 2001, has long been a huge part of the football fan’s offseason. Following an NFL team through their training camp in the summer and more recently having an in-season spin-off, Hard Knocks has captured dramatic and heartfelt moments for two decades. While some teams are against participating due to the distractions associated, the Detroit Lions football team last year elected to sign up and gave viewers one of the best seasons of the show to date.
The rules for being the football team selected are not having a first-year head coach, having no playoff appearances in the past two years, and not being the focus of Hard Knocks in the last ten years, meaning the eligible teams this year include the Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, Washington Commanders, and the New York Jets, and while each has some great reasons to be selected—none of them want to be! The NFL has the right to force a team to participate, but they’re getting a hard time from each eligible team this year.
Considering the Detroit Lions announcement happened in March of last year, they are behind in their decision as to who will be the team this year, which brings us to an interesting report that states the Detroit Lions have been in consideration for a repeat season on the show—a series first! First reported by the Detroit News, the NFL made the inquiry but was denied by the president of the team Rod Wood when he said that they were “probably going to take a year off.” Eventually, the NFL will have to pick a team, and whether that’s a team forced into it or a repeat in Detroit, it should be a good one.
