Thanks to HBO's "Hard Knocks," the Houston Texans 2015 training camp will live on forever, with over 1,500 hours of footage edited and narrated into compelling one-hour episodes.
The popular documentary, which follows one NFL team's journey through training camp, gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the daily lives of players, coaches and staff while also showing other aspects of the football operation as the team prepared for the season. A press conference was held to announce HBO's selection and soon after, the hefty project of installing wiring, cameras and equipment around the facility began.
A few months later, a 30-person staff clad in white "Hard Knocks crew" t-shirts descended on Houston to film. Much like J.J. Watt's menacing walk-up music as he crossed the bridge over Kirby, "Hard Knocks" cameras took the grind of camp and made it dramatic, must-see television each week. Who could forget Vince Wilfork showing up to practice in jean overalls, Brian Cushing's disdain for lattes, Charles James II and his crazy sock collection and DeAndre Hopkins contemplating buying a man bag? Fans even got a multi-layered look at Bill O'Brien, from the tough task of cutting players to his love of Rick Ross to seeing him at home with his family. When the hard-working crew of Hard Knocks removed the last camera and packed up the last piece of equipment in NRG Stadium, everyone was left feeling as if they had a front-row seat to see what it took to put together a 53-man roster and, on the flip side, what it might take to make one.
"Hard Knocks: 2015 Houston Texans" won two Sports Emmy awards that season: Outstanding Serialized Sports Documentary award and Outstanding Post-Produced Audio/Sound. The series was also nominated for three other Emmy Awards (Outstanding Camera Work, Outstanding Music Interpretation, Outstanding Editing – Long Form).
View behind the scenes photos from the upcoming episode of Hard Knocks.