Steelers' Cam Heyward doesn't share everyone else's enthusiasm surrounding in-season Hard Knocks

Hard Knocks used to be all about training camp and was the unofficial start of football season for fans across the globe.

The training camp staple then added in-season Hard Knocks and even has off-season Hard Knocks out now.

So when it was announced that the Steelers would be featured alongside the rest of the AFC North down the stretch of the 2024 season, many were excited.

Cam Heyward wasn't among them.

Heyward wants no part of Hard Knocks

“I hated it, I don’t wanna be on this,” Cam Heyward said when asked about the team being on Hard Knocks via his podcast Not Just Football . “The locker room is the locker room, and I just don’t want that getting messed up. There’s so many inside jokes. There’s so many people, like, you would assume everybody’s a jerk if you heard everything. But it comes from a loving place, and it comes from a caring place. We all wanna be better and we joke a lot. We poke and prod at each other, but it doesn’t come off that way always. And so that’s the only thing I really worry about.”

When you listen to players who have experienced Hard Knocks, they note how professional the crew is, and how after a few hours, you forget the cameras are even there. But that could be the problem that Heyward is referring to.

Either you're so tight that you worry about not saying anything you regularly would, or you forget, are too loose, and let something slip that the editing team at HBO thinks is green-lit.

But while Heyward noted why he isn't looking forward to the series, he did share an interesting tidbit that fans will be excited about.

"The funniest thing is going to be, we have not talked about this -- we are getting Hard Knocks during the season and Danny Smith is going to be the funniest guy on Hard Knocks. The amount of bubble gum that Danny Smith is going to be chewing non-stop is going to take off. Like you remember the one guy on Hard Knocks for the Browns where every time he said hut, his belly would start going. That's how Danny is going to be with his gum.”

Heyward has bigger fish to fry when it comes to his contract situation , but it's good to see him have some fun with what's to come this season.

Related: Former NFL QB thinks the Steelers' decision on who starts at QB in 2024 should be a no-brainer