It was great having the Bengals on Hard Knocks; SBNation.com relaunches

+ Last night, SB Nation relaunched the home page, SBNation.com, which will seek to do on a national level what each SB Nation network blog already does for its team or sport: provide the most timely, engaging and highest quality fan perspective information and conversation on the web. The company's CEO tells you what to expect with the new SBNation.com site.

This will by no means touch us, redefine what we do. Everything is still the same, save for a national level homepage. Think of it as the difference between ESPN.com and the division blogs. They're different. Make sure you check SBNation.com out at some point and put it in your favorites; unless you're like me who has so many favorites, that he's not sure what half of them are anymore.

+ HBO played the fifth and final episode of Hard Knocks Wednesday night. Let me say, first and foremost, this show has been terrific. It was neat getting in-depth perspectives of the star players, as well as those competing for a job. I'm glad people outside of the Cincinnati Bengals fanbase, got a better perspective with Chad Ochocinco. What I liked the most was the coaches. Marvin Lewis showed more emotion in this show than I've ever seen him. Jonathan Hayes' interaction with Chase Coffman probably reminds everyone of their own playing days and being ripped by the coaches. Most all of the position coaches had personality and most of the show's storylines, while jumpy sometimes, worked.

John Thornton summarizes the show, and relates with the players that struggle everyday just to keep a job in the NFL. He also points out that Pressley deserved the starting fullback job because "he pancaked pretty much every guy he touched".

It was a bit tense watching players wonder if they made the team or not. Tom Nelson, DeDe Dorsey, Chris Pressley and Fui Vakapuna were the most featured. Nelson and Dorsey got congratulatory calls from Marvin Lewis. Pressley was told that the team liked him and wanted him on the practice squad -- which is a good thing, because he's one play away from making the 53-man roster if Jeremi Johnson goes down. Vakapuna made it to the stadium, sat on a cart in the garage and Lewis approached him, telling him there's just no room.

Didn't it seem like when Chad was told he can't use Twitter and UStream like he wanted to, that he acted like a crack addict told that the supply was running out. When Coach Lewis told the team in a meeting that the new social media policy the league implemented was in place, Lewis also said it was banned from the lockerroom. Chad thought it was really in regards to him:

"He should have just called me into his office and told me; it was directed at me," The Ocho said. "I understand where the league is coming from. I understand where he's coming from."

I thought the concluding episode was a proper send off. I was thrilled to have the chance to watch the Bengals in-depth like that. There were moments where I regretted seeing what I saw, but I can't tell you how awesome it was. Good job HBO.