For the most part, everyone that I've spoken to about Hard Knocks, loved the show. There are bits and pieces here and there people didn't like. But it wasn't the production of the show that caused them to drawn themselves in half drunk warm beers. It was the Bengals themselves.
For example, yes, I know that Mike Brown runs the team. He's the owner, president, client and general manager. In his mind, he's god. We knew that much already. To actually see it? That was effing traumatizing, man. The local media picked up on what many of us said about that scene, where the suggestion was made to turn a defensive end into a tight end. Unfortunately, it was Marvin Lewis who got the question. And in Lewis fashion, he says a lot without actually saying anything.
"Well, it’s a personnel meeting. Mike serves as the GM and so its his meeting. We had a meeting in Baltimore and Ozzie (Newsome) would run the meeting. It’s about personnel and in Pittsburgh Tom Donahoe ran the meeting. If you have a meeting with the coaches about personnel there’s nothing that we do that Mike and I haven’t already discussed in the morning or that afternoon or right prior to that meeting and I hadn’t already discussed with the coaches.
"From what I understand too much is being made out of that. It’s a good thing, it’s a positive thing because he wants an opportunity to hear about how the players are doing. He tries to go watch the tape and judge it that way but he can’t the mental part and wants to hear if you rate the guys 1-5 how they’re doing and it gets an opportunity for the coaches to express themselves.
"If they’re short in an area it has a chance to reinforce which I had already talked to him about. He can ask a question which comes to his mind. So really it’s a positive. It’s something of a tradition that they have here since Paul Brown. I think we do it a couple times particularly during the first week and once a week with everyone like most teams do. Whoever is in that seat someone’s got to run that meeting. It’s not my meeting, it’s his meeting and we’ve already talked about what’s going on.”
Basically, coach says all of the right things to keep the peace. Still, it was effing traumatizing, man.