Houston Texans Picked For HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’

Photo © Scott Halleran/Getty Images.

After a long wait, HBO finally picked the Houston Texans for their Hard Knocks series, according to ESPN’s sources. The AFC South team and HBO are expected to make the announcement fairly soon.

Houston Texans picked for Hard Knocks

This will be the first time the Houston Texans were selected as the subject of HBO’s series. They were involved briefly in 2014’s show, when the featured Atlanta Falcons scrimmaged the Texans.

According to rules implemented in 2013, teams are only allowed to decline Hard Knocks if there is a first-year head coach, they made the playoffs in the last two seasons or have already been the subject of the program in the past ten seasons. The Texans do not meet any of these exceptions.

While the Texans is no one’s first choice, there will be some interesting story developments in training camp. How will the team deal with the loss of Andre Johnson – will adding Cecil Shorts and the promotion of DeAndre Hopkins fill this gap? After adding Brian Hoyer to the mix, will Ryan Mallett start opening day? Can former Penn State coach Bill O’Brien capitalize on the team’s surprise 9-7 record in 2014 ? And most importantly, is J.J. Watt as interesting as social media suggests?

Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!

A week of sports news in your in-box.
We find the sports news you need to know, so you don't have to.

The series, which has been running since 2001, follows NFL team’s through training camp, showing the everyday life of professional athletes during preseason. Usually the show focuses on both returning veterans, who are guaranteed to make the team, and a collection of undrafted free agents, whose future in professional football is up in the air.

Previous teams to be on Hard Knocks include the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, New York Jets, Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons.

And the show has become famous for showing the behind the scenes of increasingly interesting headlines, which include Darrelle Revis’ contract holdout, Rex Ryan’s vulgar motormouth, Chad Johnson’s arrest and release due to domestic violence and even Pacman Jones reinstatement to the league.