“Hard Knocks,’’ the entertaining if formularized HBO series that documents a single selected NFL team’s training camp each summer, still feels relatively fresh.
So I was somewhat caught off guard by the recent realization that this year’s five-episode arc, which features the Dallas Cowboys and owner Jerry Jones’s massive ego for the third time in the show’s run, marks two decades since it debuted in 2001 with a peek behind the curtain of the defending Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens.
The Patriots’ dynasty began that same season, of course, and it remains fans’ loss that the six-time Super Bowl champions are yet to appear on the program.