What Fans Can Expect From Inside Look At The…

Previous seasons of Hard Knocks would follow a team’s journey through training camp, often highlighting stories of specific players trying to make that team’s roster. But with this edition being in-season, fans can expect to see Hard Knocks follow different kinds of storylines – ones focused on games and the affect winning and losing has on players, coaches, staff and their families.

“What’s nice about in the season is now, it changes to everyone who has a job – every week they’re fighting to win to keep that job because winning affects everyone,” Leitner said. “It affects their families, it affects their teammates, it affects the organization. So you can kind of shift the focus to everyone who’s starting on Sundays, as opposed to a training camp. Not a lot of those guys are playing in the games. A lot of the guys who are playing are fighting for jobs, so it’s kind of just a little different focus on the perspective.

“It’s still the story of making it into the NFL. But I would say it’s part two of the journey where it’s these guys every Sunday.”

There’s a famous quote from the late Steve Sabol, who described editing and producing an episode of Hard Knocks as “building an airplane in flight.” The turnaround time from a Colts game on Sunday to the episode airing Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET is incredibly fast for such an immersive show, but Leitner said the workflow within not only NFL Films but with the Colts – she cited Colts Communications’ Matt Conti and Christian Edwards as being incredibly helpful – allows for high-quality storytelling in such a tight window.

And as for some of those storytelling elements fans can expect to see?

“Carson Wentz and his family have been really wonderful and I’m hoping that everyone gets to see a different side of them,” Leitner said. “They’ve really opened up to us, which has been awesome and lovely and I’ve been loving the the Buckner family as well are ones that I’ve really enjoyed getting to know. And then coach Reich, Frank has been really really awesome.”

The season premiere of “Hard Knocks In Season: The Indianapolis Colts” airs Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.