Bills to be featured on Hard Knocks during training camp at St. John Fisher: What we know

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For the first time in franchise history, the Buffalo Bills will be featured on HBO's popular Hard Knocks show.
The HBO cameras will be imbedded with the Bills throughout training camp at St. John Fisher University, and they will then shift during the regular season to cover all four teams in the NFC East for the in-season version of the show.
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The debut show for this season is scheduled to air Aug. 5.
The reality documentary series made its debut in 2001 when it chronicled the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens. It continued in 2002 with the Cowboys, took a hiatus until 2007 when it followed the Chiefs, and it has been a staple every year since with the exception of 2011.
In 2021, the series began to feature teams in season and the Colts, Cardinals and Dolphins were the first three teams to agree to do this, and then last year came the introduction of in-season full division coverage when the AFC North was featured.
There have been many memorable moments on the show, and just last year when the Giants were the featured team, the HBO cameras captured the team's ill-fated decision to cut ties with running back Saquon Barkley.
Bills have not previously been on Hard Knocks
The Bills have not been on the show for a couple of reasons. When it debuted, the Bills were embarking on what became a 17-year playoff drought and interest simply wasn't high on a losing, small-market team.
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More recently, as the Bills have ascended to become an AFC power, HBO was certainly interested, but the Bills have been reluctant to appear to on the show because they are a franchise that likes to keep things inside the walls of One Bills Drive as much as they can.
Sean McDermott will be speaking to reporters on Tuesday when the Bills practice and the media has access, and he will surely be asked about this. Perhaps not, but one can assume he probably isn't thrilled by the idea.
However, he likely didn't have much choice. Teams can only avoid being selected if they have a first-year head coach, have appeared on the show in the last eight years and will participate in the in-season version of the show at some point in the next two seasons. The Bills do not fit into any of that criteria so in other words, it was their turn.
This is obviously big news for the Rochester area because the HBO cameras are likely going to be focusing on different places in the region, though most of the footage will be captured at St. John Fisher.
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Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, he has written numerous books about the history of the team, and he is also co-host of the BLEAV in Bills podcast/YouTube show. He can be reached at [e-mail], and you can follow him on X @salmaiorana and on Bluesky @salmaiorana.bsky.social.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Hard Knocks to feature Buffalo Bills during training camp in 2025