As the anticipation for the start of the 2023 National Football League regular season builds, viewers are being granted more all-access coverage than ever before. The new Netflix docuseries, Quarterback, has been a massive success for Omaha Productions and has already been renewed for a second season. The first iteration of the program featuring Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins and Marcus Mariota, showcases three professional football players at different stages in their careers. As a former NFL quarterback himself, WFAN morning co-host Boomer Esiason appreciates the perspectives consumers are gaining regarding the complexities and nuance of the position.
“Peyton Manning and his group have done a great job,” Esiason said Wednesday morning. “They’re getting these access points to these players, and if you don’t have Peyton behind it, I don’t necessarily know that you could pull something like this off.”
Conversely, the New York Jets are limiting what HBO Sports and NFL Films documentary series, Hard Knocks, will be able to capture while at training camp in Florham Park, N.J. Deviating from the tradition of the show, the Jets reportedly plan to restrict HBO cameras from filming players being cut. This aligns with the resistant attitude the team has demonstrated towards being selected for the series, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers affirming it was “forced down their throats“. Despite the widespread disappointment, Gregg Giannotti does not believe viewers will be missing all that much.
“Every one of those scenes is exactly the same because generally, it is not a player of significance,” Giannotti explained. “It’s someone that when they pare the roster down from 90 players to 70 players, and 70 to 53 and all that, these guys have an idea it’s coming.”
Even so, Esiason wonders why the team believes it is “demeaning” to the players and wishes that the team would solely focus on football. Giannotti concurred.
“Just go about your business and the cameras are going to be there,” Giannotti said. “There’s going to be some creative license from the Jets where they’re going to be able to say, ‘Don’t put this out there; don’t put that out there,’ and they’ll be able to do some of that. If Aaron Rodgers is focusing on trying to not give content to the HBO cameras, to me that’s a waste of time. Just do it; just go out there and be you.”
