Caleb Williams, Bears selected for HBO's Hard Knocks

Step aside, 1920 Football Drive — HBO is coming to Halas Hall.

The NFL has selected the Chicago Bears as the subject of HBO’s Hard Knocks for the program’s upcoming training camp coverage debuting August 6.

The Bears were among three teams the league could force to appear on the show, along with the New Orleans Saints and Denver Broncos. But Chicago offers something those teams cannot: Caleb Williams.

The Caleb Factor is a real thing. Williams and the Bears are scheduled to appear in five exclusive-window games including in London and on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit.

Hard Knocks provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the true vigor, emotionality, and realities of NFL training camp. The program debuted in 2001 with an in-depth look at the Baltimore Ravens following the franchise’s first Super Bowl victory.

Teams can avoid being the league’s featured franchise if they have appeared on Hard Knocks within the last ten years, have a first-year head coach, or have qualified for the playoffs in either of the previous two seasons.

The Bears do not fit into any of those categories, thus the league was able to force the club into appearing on the show for the first time.

The NFL landing on the Bears for Hard Knocks felt like an inevitability once the team failed to make the playoffs for a third consecutive season, but retained head coach Matt Eberflus. Using the No. 1 pick on Caleb Williams — a flashy, Mr. Hollywood, generational quarterbacking talent — only cemented that likelihood.

Williams has never strayed from his true self, unfairly earning himself a reputation as a diva and showboat. But Hard Knocks gives the young quarterback a chance to further shed that image by showing him meshing with his new teammates and growing into his role as the face of a franchise starved for an elite quarterback.

Add in the popularity of being a charter franchise, the organizational turmoil that resulted in multiple midseason staff changes last year, the angst of having lost to your biggest rival ten consecutive times, and a head coach that few are completely sold on, and you have chaos.

Chaos is compelling television. Chaos is the Chicago Bears.

📺 WATCH | CHGO’s Big Dave and Patrick Norton discuss if the Bears should welcome the attention that Hard Knocks brings, and why it’s more exciting than the preseason itself.

Why haven’t the Bears been featured on Hard Knocks before?

George McCaskey is rarely outspoken, especially in comparison to other owners in the league. It’s a different story when it comes to the Bears’ potential involvement with the HBO series.

Back in March at the NFL owners meetings, McCaskey said, “We’re told there is some interest in other teams being on the program, and we welcome that interest.”

That sentiment echoed his comments from last year’s owners meeting. “We feel there are a number of teams that have compelling stories to tell on Hard Knocks.” When asked if that included the Bears, the chairman added, “31 others.”

McCaskey’s disinterest in inviting HBO’s camera crews into the team’s facility stems from the loss of privacy within the locker room.

“There’s an intrusive element,” McCaskey said in an interview with WSCR in 2016. “When you’re telling a kid that his life’s dream has ended, at least as far as your team is concerned, we think that should be a private thing.”

“If we’re never on it, that’s just fine with us,” the team’s chairman added.

When the New York Jets were forced to participate in Hard Knocks in 2023, the team requested and was granted that all footage of player cuts would be kept private.

Ryan Poles recently expressed a more relaxed outlook on the idea of being chosen for the program.

“There are some distractions that come along with it,” Poles told WMVP’s Waddle & Silvy earlier this month. “But it’s one of those things that what you learn in this league, you just adjust and adapt to whatever shows up. So if it’s here, we’ll roll. If it’s not, we’ll just keep it moving.”

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