Raiders owner Mark Davis didn’t want his team to be the subject of Hard Knocks in 2019. Coach Jon Gruden tried to pass the burden to the Lions. Not that it’s official that the Raiders will be featured on the HBO/NFL Films reality series, the Raiders aren’t saying much at all.
The official press release regarding the next season of the show contains only one quote from the Raiders.
“Everybody wants to be a Raider. Now they’ll find out what it takes to become one,” Davis blusters. (“Not this year,” Davis said in March regarding the prospect of being on Hard Knocks. “It’s not the right time.”)
There’s nothing from Gruden, from G.M. Mike Mayock, or from anyone else with the team in the official release. But there’s this passage, which surely will make Gruden even less inclined to accept the short straw: “A 30-person NFL Films crew will be in Raiders’ training camp in Napa Valley, shooting more than 1,750 hours of footage over the course of the series. Camera and sound crews will have unencumbered access to players’ and coaches’ meeting rooms, training rooms, living quarters and practice fields.”
NFL Films may have “unencumbered access,” but the league-owned production company surely won’t have unfettered discretion when it comes to determining what ends up in the show. Regardless, there surely will be plenty of “F” bombs from Gruden, who possibly will rival former Jets coach Rex Ryan in the amount of profanity that makes it to the final cut.
Much of the profanity may come in the form of Gruden sayings, “Why the f--k are these cameras here?” There’s really no reason for any team to want to accept the assignment, and the fact that the Raiders didn’t want to do it this year may actually make it even more compelling.