The Cincinnati Bengals are back for round two of Hard Knocks on HBO after appearing on the show a few years ago and head coach Marvin Lewis sees the camera as an opportunity and after the team made the playoffs last time they were on, the franchise is hoping for the same result.
The first episode of the show premiered and a number of players were featured in the footage, including Andy Dalton, Giovani Bernard, A.J. Green, James Harrison, Marvin Lewis and Larry Black. The team has made the playoffs in each of the last two seasons and Green and Dalton look like some of the best young talents in the league. Dalton showed off his pilates work and rookie Giovanni Bernard dealt with some hazing.
Green suffered an injury in the footage, but after being looked at in the training room everything ended up fine. "We dodged a bullet," Lewis told Mike Zimmer afterward. Harrison is joining a new team after starring for the Steelers and the team is looking to step up and try to win the AFC North this year.
More highlights included:
"Running back Giovani Bernard showed he can take a hit and some hazing. Jackson got on Bernard for driving a minivan, which happens to be a car belonging to his girlfriend's mother. The 5-foot-9 rookie was the team's tackling dummy for the early part of camp, receiving elbows and late hits. It only stopped after Lewis gathered the team around and told the defense not to take cheap shots on the second-round pick." From ESPN.com.
"During one segment, Gruden had to tell Harrison that there's no hitting Green in practice, "We don't touch the merchandise ever," Gruden. Harrison did not take that lightly.
"The merchandise is going to get touched," Harrison said. "I'm not going to kill him, but I'm not going to let him get the job done."
The two went back and forth until Gruden decided that it was probably in his best interest to just agree with Harrison and walk away.
Oh and don't think that Harrison's seek and destroy attitude is just limited to the football field. "We took him bowling and he said he was going to kick someone's ass today," Marvin Lewis said. "That's the way he goes through life." -From CBS Sports.