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DETROIT -- During training camp last August, Lions linebacker Stephen Tulloch walked to the sideline and began his usual regimen of riding a stationary bicycle to stave off muscle soreness.
A few reporters nearby were talking about the high drama that had unfolded the previous night on HBO's reality series "Hard Knocks."
In one of the series' most riveting scenes, Miami Dolphins coach Joe Philbin called receiver Chad Johnson into his office and released him hours after he was arrested in a domestic-battery case involving his wife.
Tulloch and Johnson share an agent and have trained together. News of Johnson's release had been out for a few days, but Tulloch couldn't believe the scene had unfolded on cable television.
"Wait, what happened?" Tulloch asked reporters. "Chad's my boy."
The dramatic scene was the talk of the day in NFL locker rooms - and that's why the Lions and many other guarded teams in the league will continue to resist granting unfettered access to HBO's ubiquitous cameras.
Recently, commissioner Roger Goodell said he's thinking of coming up with a "formal rotation" so that the burden of the show becomes a "shared obligation" among all teams.
But enforcing that rotation may have to come at the point of a bayonet for tight-lipped teams such as the Lions, Patriots, Raiders and the post-Bountygate Saints.
The Dolphins' spot on last year's show could have gone to many teams, including the Lions, when a vacancy still existed as late as May. But at that time team president Tom Lewand reiterated the Lions' lack of interest.
"You guys asked me how I felt about it," he told reporters, "and it's the same way I felt about it last year."
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