As might be expected, security is typically tight at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. The parking lot is gated. A 50-foot curtain is available to shield the primary practice field. Facial-recognition software kiosks dot the facility at myriad checkpoints.
But the most private areas where the proprietary information often is exchanged within the walls of the Pittsburgh Steelers headquarters? Well, they’re bugged.
At least for the next six weeks or so.
“Cameras in the meeting rooms?” Van Jefferson said, rhetorically, after practice Friday. “People all mic’d-up during practice?
“It’s different. But it’s just something you’ve got to get used to. It’s the new norm. Just go with it. In the end, it’ll be a good experience for everybody.”
An NFL Films contingent of three camera crews, a director and various other producers and production assistants have embedded themselves with the Steelers from now until the end of their season. For the first time, the Steelers will be part of the popular HBO documentary “Hard Knocks.”
Whereas the series came to prominence by following a single team throughout its training camp, in recent years, “Hard Knocks” has spread its wings and has been getting its content during the regular season.
But the Steelers aren’t the only team going Hollywood. This season of the program is known as “Hard Knocks: AFC North” and is following all four of the division teams.
“To me, it’s something to conquer. We have to deal with it better than the other three teams,” said Steelers coach Mike Tomlin, who, in the past, hasn’t been shy in regard to his resistance to subjecting his team to the “Hard Knocks” voyeurism.
“I’m less concerned about the inconvenience of it and more concerned about, are we positioning ourselves to perform under those conditions better than those that we compete against? It’s something that everyone in AFC North has to deal with, and so, it’s our agenda to do so better than the other three teams.”
Though crews began setting up early this month and brought cameras on occasion in the interim, the filming began in earnest Monday.
The premiere episode airs Tuesday, and the show will run each Tuesday through as long as an AFC North team is alive in the playoffs.
“I’m a huge fan of the series,” cornerback Donte Jackson said. “I’ve been watching it since I was a kid.”
“Hard Knocks” first ran in 2001, following the then-defending champion Baltimore Ravens. There has been at least one season annually since 2012, and, in recent years, the program has veered from its training camp focus to film during the season or, in the case of the New York Giants this past spring, the offseason.
“It’s a great opportunity for my family back home to maybe see me on TV a couple times, a cameo or two,” Jackson said. “I don’t really pay too much mind to (the cameras). I’m a professional, man. I have a job to do. Interacting with (NFL Films staff) is nice. I respect those guys and what they do and what they come here to do, but we have a job to do.”
Across the locker room, Steelers players echoed that sentiment. There are cameras in each meeting room, but they are inconspicuous enough that, by the end of the first week of filming, most had forgotten they were there.
Aside from a pair of 50-foot trailers in the parking lot that serve as the on-site production headquarters, the only noticeable signs of the series filming are looming, furry, banana-shaped microphones that seemingly drop in from the sky. These “boom mics” on the end of lengthy poles are held by sound technicians at practice and in the locker room during periods when the media is permitted in to interview players.
“ ‘Coach T’ already laid those ground rules about ‘Hard Knocks,’ ” offensive tackle Broderick Jones said. “We’ve still got a job to do. For me, I’m not a big TV guy, not a big camera guy, so I try to stay out of the way.”
Over the history of the show, there have been under-the-radar breakout stars, be it Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Riley “Joe Dirt” Bullough, Houston Texans cornerback Charles James or Atlanta Falcons linebacker Tyler Starr.
Though NFL household names such as Rex Ryan and Chad Johnson have had their time in the “Hard Knocks” spotlight over the years, it is the aforementioned previously unknowns who tend to steal the show.
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“That’s the thing: Young guys who continue to make plays and work hard, and you realize that all the hard work pays off and you are able to kind of show your character and be yourself a little bit more,” Steelers star outside linebacker T.J. Watt said. “Those early years, you are just trying to establish yourself and gain respect before you really kind of come out of your shell and showcase your personality.”
Watt predicted position-mate Nick Herbig and rookie cornerback Beanie Bishop as possible scene-stealers for the Steelers.
Joey Porter Jr. believes it’s more likely a veteran with an outsized personality such as Damontae Kazee, DeShon Elliott or Patrick Queen will end up stealing the show.
Porter’s father almost certainly would have drawn the camera if “Hard Knocks” was around the Steelers when he was playing. The younger Porter — outwardly, at least — is a little more camera-shy.
“I’d rather stay in the shadows,” Porter Jr. said, “but I know how my mama and my family feel. They want me on the camera, just to post on it. I’m going to get some screen time here and there, just to please the (family), but I really don’t care too much about being on it. On game day, that’s where I want my screen time to be.”