There is one man to blame for the NFL and HBO quickly canning its offseason version of Hard Knocks.
Former New York Giant and current Super Bowl-winning running back for the Philadelphia Eagles, Saquon Barkley.
The Giants infamously let Barkley walk during the 2024 offseason, in which they were the first team to be featured in the show’s new format.
The cameras followed the front office all throughout the offseason as they made decisions leading up to September. The most notable, and most viral, moment of the show came when Giants co-owner and president John Mara insisted on bringing Barkley back and not wanting him to go to their division rival.
Not only did he want his star player back in a Giants uniform, his worst fear was him going to Philadelphia. All of which came true.
“I’ll have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to Philadelphia, I’ll tell you that,” Mara said to general manager Joe Schoen at one point during the process.
“As I’ve told you, just being around enough players, he’s the most popular player we have, by far.”
Mara knew that it was all but too late.
“In a perfect world, I’d still like to have him back,” Mara told Schoen.
“We’re not going to franchise him,” Schoen said. “It doesn’t make any sense to franchise him. Could we get something in trading? What are we really going to get?”
Mara wasn’t ready to give up, even though at that point, Barkley was all but out the door.
“Until we can prove we can have a decent offense without him,” Mara said.
Spoiler alert, all of Mara’s nightmares came true when Barkley signed with the Eagles and proceeded to have one of the greatest running back seasons of all-time.
He rushed for 2,005 yards and 13 touchdowns in the regular season, but it’s what he did in the postseason that put him into the upper echelon of all-time individual seasons.
The first-year Eagle rushed for 499 yards and five touchdowns in four games, leading Philadelphia to its second-ever Lombardi Trophy.
It was the third-most rushing yards in a postseason of all-time, behind only Terrell Davis’ 581 and John Riggins’ 610.
In total, Barkley rushed for 2,504 yards in the regular season and playoffs, the most ever by a running back.
Every time Barkley provided a highlight-reel play, which proved to be on a weekly basis, the clip of Mara saying he wouldn’t be able to sleep if the RB signed with Philadelphia, would go viral all over again.
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That is why there is no more offseason version of Hard Knocks.
“When that one or two clips about Saquon got removed and isolated and blew up on social media, and as we’ve seen, have taken on a life of their own, that certainly gives people pause in the NFL and in every other walk of life about doing these sorts of shows,” NFL Films vice president Keith Cossrow said.
“It’s funny, we all want to go viral, right? Not for the wrong reasons, but it’s a measure of success in the world we live in today. But it can also go in directions that nobody can predict.”
Cossrow went on to describe Hard Knocks as ‘one of the best, and most interesting, and most surprising shows we’ve ever made.’
They had trouble finding another team who wanted to participate the following offseason. They never did, and thus the show was canned.
Who would want to be humiliated over and over again like Mara and the Giants were last year?
Hint: No one.