At least one Buffalo Bills’ player was surprised by the news that HBO is coming to training camp
It definitely caught a lot of fans by surprise, and, as it turns out, Buffalo Bills’ team personnel as well.
As the league meeting wrapped up on Wednesday, the NFL and HBO announced that the Bills have been selected as the host for the summertime documentary series Hard Knocks.
The Bills, who have awkwardly declined to recognize the news announcement, would have normally been able to refuse the assignment based upon one of three exempting factors. In recent years, franchises were allowed to avoid hosting the award-winning docuseries provided they met one of three criteria.
Teams could decline Hard Knocks participation if they have a first-year head coach, have made the playoffs within the last two seasons or have appeared on the series at some point over the past 10 years. The NFL, however, loosened the rules a bit this year, removing the exemption for recent playoff teams.
While at One Bills Drive for a promotional press conference surrounding the upcoming Hallmark holiday movie, reporter Dan Fetes was able to capture one sound from a breakout interview with longsnapper Reid Ferguson.
“My initial reaction yesterday, I didn’t know that the rules had changed. I think it caught a lot of us off guard when they announced that we were gonna be on ‘Hard Knocks’ because not a new head coach, we made the playoffs, we haven’t been on it in 10 years, but for the reasons of the other two rules,” said Ferguson, who has been with the team every year of head coach Sean McDermott’s tenure, which began in 2017.
“I think it caught a lot of us off guard… I think it’ll be an adjustment for a couple of days.”
-Reid Ferguson on the #Bills being selected to be on HBO’s #HardKnocks #BillsMafia @BuffaloPlus pic.twitter.com/zBk2LgH7sE
— Dan Fetes (@danfetes) May 22, 2025
Ferguson, who will have a role in Holiday Touchdown: A Bills Love Story, suggested that the Hard Knocks cameras would present somewhat of a challenge.
“It might be an adjustment for a couple days, to have just an extra, I don’t know how many people they bring out,” said Ferguson.
Although it creates compelling content for fans, Hard Knocks is sometimes perceived as an unwanted distraction by coaches and players.
