HBO's Hard Knocks offers a rare, all-access look for fans at one NFL team's training camp operation each year. The 2015 edition will reportedly involve the Cleveland Browns, showing four weeks worth of training camp practices, meetings, cuts, and preseason games from The Factory of Sadness itself.
Vic Carucci, currently of the Buffalo News, would be a pretty good source for this knowledge as his previous job was in the Browns organization.
As a Browns fan — sadly this is true; I am the "proud" owner of a Kellen Winslow jersey and a Johnny Manziel sweater — I'm conflicted about how to feel about this news. On the one hand, it would be interesting to see how the Browns operate on a day-to-day basis and how some of their decisions get made. It would be very compelling to watch how a guy like Manziel develops during camp — or how he doesn't — and it might allow me to set more educated expectations on the upcoming season (almost assuredly those expectations will be that they're going to be mediocre). HBO would certainly love to follow Manziel around with all the scrutiny surrounding his play, stint in rehab, and off the field behavior.
On the other hand, knowing the Browns' track record for decision making and generally operating as one of the worst franchises in professional sports, I might be better off not being able to watch the train wreck from the inside. Hard Knocks is also, while very interesting and entertaining, almost always a bummer to watch because inevitably one of the players you become emotionally attached to over the course of the four weeks gets cut on the final episode.
Being a Browns fan and following the team closely is an exercise in futility and frustration, so if nothing else, I'm excited that for four weeks in the fall you all will get to be a part of that with us Browns faithful.
