Steelers Players Distraught Over In-Season Hard Knocks: “I Don’t Wanna Be On This”

The Pittsburgh Steelers are set to be part of the first-ever in-season edition of Hard Knocks, featuring the entire AFC North. Hard Knocks, a highly popular documentary series, will follow the chase for the AFC North title during the final six weeks of the NFL season. The series will also cover the playoff run for the division winner and any other AFC North teams that make the postseason.

When it was announced that the best division in football would be featured on this groundbreaking in-season Hard Knocks, fans of the Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Baltimore Ravens, and Cincinnati Bengals were thrilled. Seeing close-ups of your favorite team and behind-the-scenes moments is always exciting. Most football fans love Hard Knocks regardless of which team is featured, but when it's your team, the excitement is overwhelming.

While fans are excited, Steelers players such as Cam Heyward and Christian Kuntz are not happy about it. Heyward and Kuntz expressed their concerns during an episode of Not Just Football, detailing how they truly feel about being featured in the heat of their season on the series. 

"I hated it, I don't wanna be on this," said Heyward. "The locker room is the locker room, and I just don't want that getting messed up. There's so many inside jokes. There's so many people, like, you would assume everybody's a jerk if you heard everything. But it comes from a loving place, and it comes from a caring place. We all wanna be better and we joke a lot. We poke and prod at each other, but it doesn't come off that way always. And so that's the only thing I really worry about."

Kuntz echoed Heyward's sentiments, sharing his own perspective on the matter. He revealed that having cameras everywhere during the toughest stretch of their 2024 schedule is a significant distraction.

"I agree that people could get misinterpreted or other people could be misguided on how they feel about somebody based on what they hear on TV," Kuntz said. "Where it could be just a joke, where it a hundred percent is just a joke or an inside joke, it's just, a locker room's like a safe place. That facility is like a safe place and you're gonna have cameras everywhere. It's in the middle of like Week 8, heat of the battle with division games and stuff."

Adding to the frustration is the way the NFL scheduled the Steelers' games. The Steelers do not start AFC North play until Week 11 of the 2024 season against the Ravens. The AFC North is widely regarded as the best division in football, which is likely why it was chosen for the first-ever division series of Hard Knocks.

The NFL stated that they did not intentionally create a tough schedule for the Steelers. They explained that scheduling division games is similar to college basketball, where teams play out-of-conference games first and then finish the season with conference play.

However, football is not basketball; it is a violent sport, and by the end of the year, players are often injured and battling through. It is not ideal to play all division games during the back half of the season. It almost feels like the NFL set this up intentionally because of the series.

Steelers' Mike Tomlin Could Steal The Show During Hard Knocks

It makes sense why players would not want to deal with cameras, especially during such a critical stretch of the season. Steelers fans are certainly excited to tune in and get a more behind-the-scenes look. However, many inside the organization seem to hate it.

The Steelers have many storylines, and it will be interesting to see how they are featured in the series. Much will depend on how Pittsburgh is performing by that time. Football fans will also be tuning in to see the iconic Steelers Head Coach, Mike Tomlin.

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