The Oakland Raiders were announced on Tuesday as the team that will be the focus of HBO training camp show “Hard Knocks” for the upcoming season, which is something that might not be too pleasing to team owner Mark Davis.
Back in March, Davis was not thrilled with the idea of his Raiders appearing on “Hard Knocks,” saying it would be “disruptive.”
“It would be disruptive,” Davis said in a March 27 article by ESPN’s Paul Gutierrez. “We’ve got a lot of business to take care of, get ready for the season. I appreciate that they might think we’d be great TV, but we got something to accomplish.”
HBO and the NFL may not have cared too much whether Davis found it disruptive or not, because they made it happen.
The Raiders were one of five teams eligible to appear on the show, along with the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, New York Giants and Washington Redskins. Fans are going to watch regardless of which team is on the show, but the Raiders have the most intrigue and appeal of all, with the Giants not too far behind.
Whether it was the Bucs’ head coach, the Browns’ Hue Jackson, or Houston’s Bill O’Brien, coaches and higher-ups often are not thrilled about the presence of Hard Knocks at their training camp. Comments like the one from JJ Watt help explain why.
