| Bush on the Hard Knocks experience: 'I don’t know if it’s good or bad but it is what it is right now.' (US PRESSWIRE) |
There's a reason HBO had trouble finding an NFL team to be featured on Hard Knocks: Any publicity isn't always good publicity, especially in a billion-dollar industry where the lines between public perception and reality are often blurred. But HBO finally found a willing partner in the Miami Dolphins.
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In theory, the marriage made sense. The Dolphins are an organization in search of an identity and through the right storylines and subplots, Hard Knocks could help accomplish that. Chad Johnson, Ryan (and Lauren) Tannehill, Reggie Bush -- all big names with interesting backstories that could make for compelling television.
The problem: compelling doesn't always mean flattering. Coach Joe Philbin cutting Johnson was a gripping moment but hardly painted the team in the best light. And it's these moments that give Bush pause. During a recent appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Bush was asked about Life After Chad around the Dolphins' facility.
"Obviously with Chad being dismissed from the team, it was obviously not good media so it may cause a little bit of a small distraction but I think guys were pretty focused and we still have to go to work," he said via SportsRadioInterviews.com. "Still have to get better and correct our mistakes from the last preseason game and just find a way to get better as a team."
Bush said that he didn't watch Hard Knocks last Tuesday when Johnson was released and admitted that he's not sure if having cameras documenting the entirety of training camp is a good idea.
"I don't know if it's good or bad but it is what it is right now," he said. "We have it so let's make the best of it. That's our mentality. I think you can make a case for both situations. When I was in New Orleans, Coach Payton opted not to do Hard Knocks so I think you can make a case for both. Some coaches may feel that it's more of a distraction, some coaches may use it as fuel to bring back passion to the football team and do it for the fans purposes. So while you have it you make the most of it but you still have a job to do and you still have to focus in and kind of go about your business as if the cameras aren't even there."
Bush sounds like he's making the best of a less-than-ideal situation but that's a microcosm of the NFL. Whether this experience will have any bearing on the Dolphins season is another matter. Hard Knocks history has been a mix of winners and losers, playoff teams and underachievers. Ultimately, Miami's success won't be contingent on the inner workings Les Brown's relationship with his girlfriend but on consistency and execution. Just like every other year when there weren't cameras perpetually lurking.
“My expectations are for us to be just a dominant team this year and improve on the mistakes that we made from last year," Bush said. "We want to win the division and the number one goal is to win the Super Bowl but obviously there are things that go into play underneath that. ... I think one of the things that hurt us last year was we didn’t do a lot of fundamental things right. We found ourselves 0-7 pretty quick and having to dig ourselves out of a deep hole so this year we want to get off to a fast start, play good fundamental Dolphin football and just be a tough team all around."
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