Major update emerges about UNC’s talks with ‘Hard Knocks’

The NFL’s offseason edition of “Hard Knocks” was supposed to feature a very surprising team for its second season, but it sounds like that is no longer in play.

Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports reported last week that the North Carolina football team was in talks with NFL Films to be the subject of the next edition of “Hard Knocks: Offseason.” Those discussions seem to have fallen apart.

A spokesperson for NFL Media told Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports on Tuesday that no deal could be reached following weeks of negotiations with Bill Belichick and the UNC football program. Jones reports that the sides got close to an agreement but could not find common ground on creative control.

UNC is still hoping to put together some sort of all-access program leading up to Belichick’s first season with the school. The former New England Patriots coach has a long history with NFL Films, but that apparently was not enough for the two sides to work through their different visions for “Hard Knocks.”

NFL Films has not been able to find an NFL team willing to take part in the offseason edition of “Hard Knocks.” The New York Giants were the subject in the first installment last year, and they went 3-14 last season. That is probably a factor in why other teams do not want to participate.

HBO will still have its usual training camp and in-season version of “Hard Knocks,” though it is not yet known which team will be featured.

Many were surprised to hear that Belichick even had interest in “Hard Knocks” given some of the infamous moments that have been captured on the show in the past. The 72-year-old coach probably realizes that publicity is more important for a college program looking to land recruits than it is for an established NFL franchise.