Black cats, the curse of the bambino, the curse of the goat, the Madden curse and now HBO’s "Hard Knocks." The usual suspects you hear about all the time. The video game that is death wise of all who grace its cover. Vince Young has dared to challenge the curse that has proven true ever since the namesake of the game ceased to be deemed notable enough to serve as the face of the most popular video game of all time. More perplexing than Young Vick’s, sorry, Vince Young’s decision was the Kansas City Chiefs’ decision to allow HBO’s Hard Knocks camera to trail them through training camp. This intrusion spells doom for a marginal team from the beginning.

So let us look at the history of this entertaining yet destructive reality show. The first installment of the series was a great programming idea; follow the 2000 Baltimore Ravens as they attempt to repeat as Super Bowl champions. First of all, it does not get any better than Ray Lewis in his trash-talking, play-making, squirrel-dancing prime. Add to this the shear comedy of Brian Billick trying to prove he's smarter than everyone else on a daily basis. The icing on the cake was Shannon "3 rings" Sharpe adding his commentary with the ever entertaining Tony Siraguasa. Hell, this show gave us two of our more entertaining football analysts. Wait, did I just write that? Make that "unpredictable" analysts.

But the beginning of that season started disastrously with Jamal Lewis ripping his ACL in camp, essentially eliminating their offense from the equation. Elvis Grbac went on to be one of the biggest free agent atrocities of any Super Bowl champ and Terry Allen became the first player in the NFL to be allowed to play in a golf cart. This team fought the curse tooth and nail but eventually gave way in playoffs to the Kordell Stewart led Steelers of all teams.

Second to play Russian roulette with Hard Knocks were my beloved Dallas Cowboys. The 2002 version were kidding themselves into thinking they could actually win with Dave Campo as their coach. This series was comical for unintentional reasons to every Cowboy hater, with Campo’s absolute lack of a vertebrae, Jerry at his most meddlesome and the Quincy Carter lisp (What made me think that a starting QB in the NFL could have a lisp and be effective). That team collapsed out of the gate with a loss to the EXPANSION Texans; although, I have to thank HBO because it was instrumental in the ending the dreaded Dave Campo era. This season was such a debacle that no team dared to even talk about doing the series until five years later.

This season the Chiefs invited HBO and NFL films to join them in training camp. When I first heard the announcement I was ecstatic because of the Herm Edwards factor. I was sure we were going to get a "You play to win the game type speech." Of course he did not disappoint hence the "I failed to do my job" announcement after a PRESEASON game. But before that happened, Larry Johnson held out. This was expected because the guy accounted for about 80% of their O in the past 2 years and Vin Baker was making more than him at home drinking Old English Malt. Then they realized that Brodie Croyle had nothing to offer (save for a hot wife). They went winless and now are competing with the Browns for the first pick in next year’s draft.

When will execs and coaches learn that you can not mess with karma? Earl Hickey understands the strength and power it holds. Maybe the ill fortunes of these can be attributed to some other factors. All three had garbage disposer waste for quarterbacks and GMs with their collective head up the wrong end of the uniform, who cared more about looking smart than actually trying to make their teams better. Perhaps it was just a conspiracy by the TV execs to make the show more intriguing. Whatever the actual cause, I will forever refer to it as the curse of "HBO’s Hard Knocks" series. Enter at your own risk.