Christopher ‘Mad Dog’ Russo: New York Giants Having Editorial Control Over ‘Hard Knocks’ Is Ridiculous

The offseason edition of Hard Knocks featuring the New York Giants premiered on Tuesday night and drew interest from sports fans, eliciting reviews of the first episode within the five-part series across social media. Consumers were given inside looks of how the Giants handled certain situations during the offseason, including the decision to let Saquon Barkley walk to the division rival Philadelphia Eagles in free agency and how the team perceived quarterback Daniel Jones. Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo, however, would not watch the series because of the team possessing final editorial control over parts of the show that are aired and left on the cutting room floor.

The New York Giants Giants organization will be celebrating its 100th season in the NFL next year, and Nilay Shah, senior vice president of marketing and brand strategy for the team, said in a statement that it provided NFL Films with “unprecedented access to this critical time of the year” from the moment last season ended. Joe Schoen, senior vice president and general manager of the New York Giants, divulged the organization having final editorial control at a recent event. As a result, Russo stated that he would not view the series if he had “insomnia,” he claimed on Wednesday’s edition of First Take, and viewed the oversight as “ridiculous” and not representative of legitimate television.

“Do you think John Mara is going to allow you to see anything that is a bit controversial [that] happens with Joe Schoen or Brian Daboll or Wink Martindale, who was fired, any of these scenarios between January and May?,” Russo said. “You’re not going to see a word. It’s going to be sugarcoated and vanilla, so why would you watch five hours. Are you that desperate to see how the Giants work some draft pick out?”

The offseason edition of Hard Knocks is the first series within a year-round programming schedule surrounding the franchise, which is produced by HBO and NFL Films. The Chicago Bears will be featured on the training camp edition of the show while the entire AFC North division will take part in its in-season edition.

“This is television,” Russo said. “If you don’t like it, you know what, you don’t like it, but it’s good TV, it’s good for football and the fact that the Giants will tell you what they want to see it makes it not worthwhile. I wouldn’t watch that if it was in my backyard – I’d close the blinds.”

Brian Custer, who was filling in as the host of the program on Wednesday, mentioned that he loved when the Dallas Cowboys were on Hard Knocks because owner, president and general manager Jerry Jones would let everything be aired. Chris Carlin, who produced Mike and the Mad Dog on WFAN early in his career and currently co-hosts Carlin vs. Joe on ESPN Radio, elaborated on the situation and gave his perspective as to why the Giants are being featured on the show in this manner.

“This is the thirst of the fan for anything NFL-related, so they’re going to let them do whatever they want,” Carlin said. “That’s what’s going to happen.”

Kendrick Perkins, who was appearing on the program remotely, concurred with Russo’s point that he would want to see everything going on if he were to watch the show. Without being able to watch the genuine sequence of events, he is not entirely interested in the offseason show.

“I don’t want it to be edited – I wanted it to naturally have it be authentic,” Perkins said. “I’m right there with you. Damnit, I don’t want to watch it either if they got control over it.”

Ahead of the 2007 season when Herm Edwards was serving as the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs, the organization was featured on the show. With that experience, he asked why the Giants are being featured on the show and questioned what there would be to present on the air.

“Why do we want to watch the Giants?,” Edwards said. “Come on.”

New episodes of Hard Knocks premiere on Tuesday nights at 9 p.m. EST on HBO and streaming on Max. The training camp edition of the show with the Bears will take the air starting on Tuesday, Aug. 6 and continue to debut new episodes through Sept. 3. As a result, Hard Knocks will feature new programs every week until the start of the NFL regular season.