Players' aspirations to play in the NFL "live and die every year" on HBO's "Hard Knocks," and that "month-long human drama continued to make the show genuinely satisfying" this season, according to Jim Reineking of USA TODAY. Without the usual preseason games in August, the "storytelling aspect of the in-game isolation moments that NFL Films is so famous for was a non-factor." There also was a "heavy focus" on the league's "extensive COVID-19 protocols and then the social justice movement." Still, there were a "handful of roster bubble players who were thrust into the spotlight by the show" (USA TODAY, 9/9). In L.A., Emmanuel Morgan notes "Hard Knocks" leaned on "personnel swapping in its fifth and final episode this season." As training camp concluded, both the Rams and Chargers "whittled their rosters to 53 players." One by one, the players at the bottom of the roster "walked into offices, hearing their fate of being relegated to the practice squad" (L.A. TIMES, 9/9).
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