HBO 'Hard Knocks' Episode 5 review: Brutality of NFL cutdowns on full display

Tanks for the memories, Eric Kush.

Great little daughter you have there, Austin Hill. Now you’ve got more time to play.

As much as we respect the heck out of your uncle, you just need to get stronger, Ian Seau. Stay in touch. And stay strong.

By Saturday moing, most of the Rams’ final 22 cuts were made, and disclosed to the public. But until HBO cut up and spliced together its final episode of “Hard Knocks” and aired it Tuesday night, viewers might not have achieved proper closure, especially those invested in the docu-series going back to its Aug. 9 beginning.

Episode 5 reinforced the quick and sometimes blunt nature of the business can be as the Rams, put in the spotlight this year, got to the NFL-mandated 53-player limit before the regular season began. Through this month-long jouey, the NFL Films cameras and documentarians tried to also incorporate the fact that the team was kind of operating while the ground was shifting below as they moved from St. Louis to L.A., with stops at camps in Oxnard and Irvine, and then a final trip to Thousand Oaks to set up headquarters.

As seemed to be the case in every installment, head coach Jeff Fisher came out making the best impression for his attempts to inject compassion into an otherwise brutal way to make a living. For the finale, it started with Fisher’s heart-to-heart talk with defensive back Lamarcus Joyner, who some may not have cared whether or not he made the team by the way he was pouted on the practice field during Episode 4, but then explained his conflicted emotions. Joyner’s desire to quit sparked Fisher to recall a story he had with the late quarterback Steve McNair, and seemed to connect with Joyner.

The same viewer connection came with receiver Paul McRoberts, whose reaction to the death of his step-brother was covered in Episode 3, and his making the practice roster and eaing a $7,000-a-week paycheck was a relief. McRoberts was all but resigned to the fact that he would be cut after fumbling a punt in the final exhibition game against Minnesota, but then followed it up with a nice TD reception, which may have been the separation point between him and Hill.

The decision to let tank-top diva Kush go as he tried to stick as a center or guard on the offensive line took the most storytelling of the second half of Episode 5. Kush not only met with Fisher but also general manager Les Snead, who made his first appearance of the series. At least there was some consolation that Kush almost immediately was signed by the Chicago Bears – his sixth team in two years.

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The departures of Hill, who did a lot of camera milking, and for Seau, who didn’t even seem to show much emotion at all throughout the series, bordered on the cliché.

But as for Jared Goff, the No. 1 overall pick in April who slipped to No. 3 on the Rams quarterback depth chart by the time the final exhibition game ended, the “Hard Knocks” experience probably didn’t win him over a lot of support from start to finish.

A scene of him reclining in a nice home with his Cal jersey framed on the wall might not have best framed his situation. The kid who will tu 22 years old during Week 7 didn’t appear to show a lot of urgency in getting into the starting lineup. He may not be as easy to root for as starter Case Keenum, who came off much better in front of the cameras, with his wife Kimberly.

Then again, the Rams “aren’t expecting miracles in the city of angels,” according to the final line of narration by Liev Schreiber. “But they know that in Hollywood, happy endings happen all the time.”

Whatever that’s supposed to mean.

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