7 story lines to watch for Dallas Cowboys' latest turn on 'Hard Knocks'

Unsurprising as the selection of the Dallas Cowboys to participate – for a record third time – in this summer's installment of "Hard Knocks" was, the decision by HBO and NFL Films to feature "America's Team" once again is also wholly justifiable.

For starters, plenty of metrics suggest the Cowboys are America's most popular – and maybe least popular – sports team. With so much organic interest, why try to generate artificial buzz by forcing the spotlight onto one of this year's other meh alternatives – the Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, Denver Broncos and New York Giants? (League rules exempt teams from appearing on "Hard Knocks" if they have a first-year head coach, reached the playoffs in either of the previous two seasons or participated in the show in the previous 10 years.)

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