If you hate Chad Johnson/Ochocinco now...

...then you still might even after you watch some episodes of HBO's highly-entertaining football documentary series Hard Knocks. However, the more likely result is that you will get a better understanding of the guy and even find him to be quite endearing. That's because Hard Knocks, which films the training camp drama of a different NFL team each year (the lucky winners this season being the ever-dramatic Cincinnati Bengals), is as close as most of us armchair quarterbacks will ever get to experiencing the day-to-day lives of the guys we scream hysterically at on Sundays and Mondays. For sure, this show is a must-watch for both fans of the sport of American football and for anyone who just likes watching honest portrayals of the struggles and sacrifices necessary to pursue childhood dreams.

It's actually odd that I am watching this show. I've heard of the series before, but I just never had any interest in watching the teams followed. I would rather watch 3 minutes of...this...than listen to Jerry Jones talk about how much money he has. But even though the Bengals are not exactly a team I'm infatuated with, I still thought that they had a story custom-made for reality TV...plus a guy named Chad. Speaking of Señor Ochocinco, watching the show actually made me appreciate him a bit more. I never hated him since all of his crazy antics were on the field and not off it. However, his candid conversations on Hard Knocks showed me how funny this dude actually is. Just check out this highlight clip:







Now only if HBO could film the Eagles sometime in the near future, then I would follow that religiously. Actually, it would have been better if they had done it a couple years back. Then I probably could have found out how the hell Reno Mahe had a job for so long.



Oh yeah and for my fellow pirates, this is where I watch episodes. Just be aware of Megavideo's lame 72-minute limit.