The HBO series "Hard Knocks," chronicling the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' training camp, wrapped up Tuesday. Here's a look at some of the highlights from the final episode, which centered around the fourth preseason game and cut-down day:
Mike Evans opens up about his family
We've seen bits and pieces of Evans throughout the show, including some hilarious conversations with DeSean Jackson on the sidelines and Evans having lunch with his wife, Ashli.
Evans played mostly a supporting role in the show, but in this episode, we really get to see the core of who Evans is. He opens up about his difficult childhood, including his father being in prison and the domestic violence he witnessed.
"I never saw my dad hit my mom, but I saw the bruises and heard her crying in the middle of the night and things like that," Evans said.
When he was 9 years old, Evans said his uncle attacked his father with a knife and shot him in the head, killing him.
"I was angry. I just used sports to channel that rage I had," Evans said. "I used to play defensive end in little league football. They didn't pass the ball much in little league, but every time they did, I said, 'I'm gonna get a sack and this was for my dad.' And I would bull-rush them, making a tackle."
Bobo goes bye-bye
In one of the strangest moments of the show, rookie undrafted free agent Jesus "Bobo" Wilson was nowhere to be found on cut day. When director of football operations Shelton Quarles summons him, he learns that Wilson went to Miami for the weekend. "This might just be the straw that broke the camel's back," general manager Jason Licht said to director of player personnel John Spytek.
"It's not very shocking," Spytek said.
Licht responded, "I want to make a rational decision here and not a..."
Spytek said, "Just take a [deep breath] ... you don't have to decide right now. He's got like five hours to get here."
In the next scene, we see Koetter tell offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach Todd Monken: "I'm gonna tell Bobo, 'We're putting you on the practice squad, we're gonna keep working with you, but if you don't change your attitude, you won't make it anywhere.' If he doesn't change, he has no chance."
What makes the move even more difficult to watch is that the team opted to keep him over Donteea Dye Jr., a player who stays out on the field after almost every practice working with the Jugs machine, is always doing what he can to lift his teammates and did everything the right way.
It showed just how unfair the league can be sometimes.
Jeremy McNichols stiff-arms the Bucs
It became pretty obvious early on in the series that unless he did a complete 180, running back Jeremy McNichols was not going to make the 53-man roster. What wasn't so obvious for those covering the team is that the Bucs wanted the fifth-round draft pick on their practice squad and he declined it.
McNichols struggled throughout camp and the preseason. Even in the fourth and final preseason game, he was making the same mental errors when it came to protections. He was also running stiff. The Bucs believed he could grow into their system, though, and McNichols expressed his interest in joining the practice squad, too.
But when he returned to the building, he had an offer to join the San Francisco 49ers practice squad. He told Quarles, "I just felt some type of [way] ... I don't know."
In a phone call to Koetter, Licht said, "McNichols got his feelings hurt. If he's gonna mope and complain about being taken out of the game when he just made one mistake, we don't want that kind of s--- anyway."
When the phone call ends, Spytek comes in to tell Licht that McNichols bailed, and Licht let out a loud, "F---!"
Best quote of the episode:
In a conversation with Spytek, Licht summed up his feelings on cut day with this: "I hate today. I would rather drive across the country with Skip Bayless and no radio working and the heater is stuck on and a windshield wiper is stuck on and it's got the metal hitting the glass ... with Skip Bayless."
Spytek: "That's saying something on Skip Bayless."
What they missed:
One of the the best stories of training camp was hometown wide receiver Bernard Reedy clinching the final spot on the 53-man roster. Reedy didn't have a flashy camp, but he quietly became the most consistent receiver in the Bucs' group of players vying for the fifth receiver spot.
The crew spent more time capturing Wilson's play that was originally called a touchdown but then was called back -- Wilson was ruled down instead -- rather than Reedy's touchdown catch in the fourth quarter, which was the only touchdown catch of the preseason.
What makes Reedy's story such a compelling one is that he was out of football for all of 2015 and, after nearly making the cut in 2016, suffered a torn meniscus in the final preseason game. He spends his offseasons working for a company called Care Ride that provides transportation services to people in wheelchairs and lives in the same childhood home he grew up in.
His story demonstrates that not all NFL players are multimillionaires. It also shows the measures some will take to keep their dreams alive while providing for their families.
