It Could Be A "Hard Knocks" Life For The Vikings This Summer

Every year, the National Football League and the folks from HBO put together Hard Knocks, a show that follows one National Football League team through Training Camp. The show finds a couple of interesting storylines, most of which usually involve rookies, and attempt to wring as much drama from them as they can.

The NFL has had a hard time getting teams to volunteer for the show over the past few years, so they now have rules in place for making a team take part in the show. According to this article from Michael Phillips of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Minnesota Vikings are one of the teams that the NFL could force to go on the show.

The reason that the league could force the Vikings to participate is because they meet the two criteria set forth by the league. Those criteria are 1) not making the post-season over the past two seasons and 2) not having a new head coach. The other teams that are in the same boat as the Vikings are the Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants, St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Tennessee Titans, and Washington Redskins. (EDIT: In addition, the Cleveland Browns are another team that qualifies.)

If the Vikings were on Hard Knocks, it would be Mike Zimmer's second experience with the program, as he was part of the Cincinnati Bengals team that was highlighted in 2013.

All things considered, the Vikings would probably be a pretty compelling team. They have a young potential star at quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater, they have the potential return/reintegration of Adrian Peterson, Zimmer has the kind of demeanor that could make for good television (and since it's on HBO, there wouldn't be any of those annoying beeps getting in the way), and the team has the potential to make some strides in 2015. If the league can't get a team to volunteer for the job, it wouldn't be surprising to see them put the Vikings in the spotlight.

What do you think? Would you want to see the Minnesota Vikings on Hard Knocks leading up to the 2015 season?

And since it's in your head now anyway. . .