Ravens' John Harbaugh Gives Thoughts on Hard Knocks

The Baltimore Ravens head coach isn't too pleased.

Jan 28, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh (center) questions a call against the Kansas City Chiefs during the second half in the AFC Championship football game at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports / Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

The Baltimore Ravens are finally making their long-awaited return to "Hard Knocks" as they, along with the rest of the AFC North, will be the subject of this year's in-season edition of the hit HBO show, premiering on Dec. 3.

While fans will get an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the Ravens and their division rivals, teams often aren't thrilled to have so many cameras on them at all times.

In fact, Ravens coach John Harbaugh just recently explained his concerns with the show in an interview on "The Adam Jones Podcast" (the former Baltimore Orioles outfielder, not former NFL cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones).

“Everything’s put on,” Harbaugh said, per The Baltimore Banner. “You got to put a microphone and a camera in your face, people aren’t the same. If they want to bring ‘Hard Knocks’ in here, it wouldn’t bother me one bit, just because I know what I’d tell our guys is, ‘All right, here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to just be us. We’re going to say what we say. We’re going to do what we do. We’re going to handle it the way we handle it because we’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.’ And we’re not trying to put on a show or an act for anybody. 

“And we do have final — we’d better have final editing power on the whole thing. ... I also do think it’s a distraction because you’ve got a camera in your face. You know, [the NBC sitcom] ‘The Office,’ right, it wasn’t real. They really weren’t in the office. That was put on and made up. So there’s always going to be some acting that’s going to go on in that type of scenario. And I just want our guys to get the most out of the day and become the best team they can be.”

Harbaugh is far from the first coach to raise these concerns, and he'll be far from the last as well. With fewer teams wanting to participate with each passing season, the league can force a team to do so if they haven't appeared on the show in the past 10 years, don't have a first-year head coach and haven't made the playoffs in both of the previous two seasons.

All four AFC North teams cannot be forced to participate under that criteria, so clearly there was some enthusiasm about doing so. Alternatively, this is the first edition of Hard Knocks to feature an entire division, so there could be different criteria at play.

Either way, Harbaugh and the Ravens will have to deal with the added media attention as they chase a Super Bowl championship.

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