And the Emmy for outstanding performance in a limited documentary series about a professional football team on the verge of contending for a Super Bowl goes to … Chicago Bears general manager Ryan Poles for “Hard Knocks.”
Poles was the hands-down winner for his Episode 5 scene with safety Adrian Colbert, whom Poles had to inform was not making the Bears’ 53-man roster.
“Some cuts,” narrator Liev Schreiber intones in his Liev-iest manner, “are deeper than others.”
Poles’ decision to go off screen and compose himself before his conversation with Colbert — whose story of a childhood biking accident that left him in a coma had made the journeyman a sympathetic character in training camp — was the piece de resistance of the five-part series.
Part of the job for any top executive of a professional team is to make dozens of personnel decisions over the course of a season, including the ones at the end of camp that are featured in every “Hard Knocks” season.
“It’s the hardest part of the job” is a sports film cliche that dates to the manager in “Bull Durham” informing catcher Crash Davis he was being released. But the Colbert decision clearly brought out the emotions in Poles, who may or may not have been sniffling off screen before the talk.
No, it wasn’t as tear-jerking as Ian Wheeler’s mom hugging him in the bowels of Arrowhead Stadium in Episode 4 after Wheeler tore his ACL in the preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the most Kleenex-inducing scene for Bears fans since Gale Sayers’ “I looooove Brian Piccolo” speech in “Brian’s Song.” That long hug was as real as it gets — an athlete who worked so hard to reach his dreams suffering a crushing, season-ending injury and a mother comforting her son after a dream deferred.
But Poles did seem sincere in his feelings when speaking to and about Colbert. My guess is that scene humanized him to a lot of viewers who think of sports management types as cold-blooded, win-at-all-cost robots who treat athletes like meat. Poles was in their shoes and it showed.
“Hard Knocks” is over now, and some observers were upset it was little more than an infomercial for the organization, spreading optimism for the start of the Caleb Williams era and portraying management and the players in the best light possible. What did they expect?
That’s what “Hard Knocks” is and always will be. This isn’t “60 Minutes.” It’s a reality show, and every reality show needs interesting characters and a little bit of drama, which “Hard Knocks” provided, along with the expected fluff like veterans sending rookies to a grocery store to buy candy.
Poles cutting players he loved wasn’t all that much different than Jenn Tran handing out roses on “The Bachelorette.” He became the unexpected star of the series, if only because he usually comes across as stiff in his news conferences.
Bears players acquitted themselves as well, though I could’ve used a little more Montez Sweat and less of running backs coach Chad Morton.
The supporting cast was also terrific. Olympic “G.O.A.T.” Simone Biles deserves a special guest star credit, down to her final “bye-eee” while FaceTiming her husband, safety Jonathan Owens. DJ Moore’s little girl stole one episode, as did Wheeler’s mom. Quarterback Austin Reed’s parents and my personal favorite, “Mrs. Flus” — coach Matt Eberflus’ wife, Kelly — became TV stars in their own right.
If the primary goal of “Hard Knocks” was to sell the Bears as a caring and sensitive organization with likable players who have stories to tell, mission accomplished. If the secondary goal was to promote the narrative of the Bears as a team on the rise, that worked out well too.
If the third goal was to get a new stadium subsidized by Illinois taxpayers … well, two out of three ain’t bad.
I can’t compare this season of “Hard Knocks” with the others because they all run together. But having a team you’re actually interested in instead of the Dallas Cowboys or Aaron Rodgers’ current employer made it appointment TV. I’m sure if HBO had its way, every season would be about the Cowboys or Rodgers’ team.
Ratings trumps everything else in TV, and ratings means money. But remember, only three teams fit the NFL’s criteria for appearing on “Hard Knocks”: They could not have a new head coach, made the playoffs the last two seasons or been featured on the show in the past 10 years.
The choices were the Bears, Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints. Instead of watching Williams’ debut, we could’ve seen rookie Bo Nix winning the Broncos quarterback job or Saints running back Alvin Kamara listing his house during uneasy contract negotiations. Yawn.
No one would’ve known that Eberflus gets honey from the bees he keeps on his North Shore property. (Or — as Mrs. Flus quickly corrected him — that a beekeeper gets the honey because Matt is very busy coaching the Bears.) No one would’ve known backup quarterback Tyson Bagent is a funny guy. No one would’ve known the Bears have a bright, young female coach in Jennifer King.
The Bears proved to be a perfect choice, despite the harping of Chairman George McCaskey, who repeatedly insisted a TV show the team had control over would turn into a nightmare. The success of “Hard Knocks” also confirmed how backward the McCaskey family can be when it comes to marketing its team or understanding its audience. Appearing on this show was a no-brainer.
Almost every professional sports team has its own version of a “Hard Knocks”-style video crew to promote itself. The videos are created to send a message to fans (i.e. potential customers) that the product is worth buying. Social media made them a necessary ingredient of sports marketing, and behind-the-scenes videos are now big business.
Some don’t work. Remember back in spring training when the White Sox created a video titled “The Definition of F.A.S.T.”? The acronym stood for “Fearless. Aggressive. Selfless. Technically Sound.” (That’s five words, suggesting the Sox were not even good at creating acronyms.)
After a spring training highlight featuring excitable announcer John Schriffen, we saw manager Pedro Grifol talking “off the cuff” during a coaches meeting.
“When people watch us play and other teams are playing against us, they need to know who the f––– we are and what we bring to the table every single day,” Grifol said as the music swelled.
Grifol was fired on Aug. 8 during what’s about to become officially the worst season in major-league history. But at least the other teams playing the Sox know who the f––– they are and what they bring to the table.
The chances of “Hard Knocks” backfiring on the Bears like that little-seen Sox video are remote. Even if they don’t live up to the hype, no one will blame it on the TV show.
A strange sense of calmness awaits the start of the season, and “Hard Knocks” helped make it so. As Schreiber told us in Episode 5: “Serenity is not the same as surrender.”
Fade to black.
