Raiders owner says ‘Hard Knocks’ would be ‘disruptive’ to 2019 camp

Travis Durkee

Raiders owner says ‘Hard Knocks’ would be ‘disruptive’ to 2019 camp image

Star wide receiver Antonio Brown, head coach Jon Gruden, owner Mark Davis and a passionate-yet-disgruntled fan base being stripped of their team sounds like solid television, but the Raiders are already campaigning to be passed over for HBO’s training camp reality show “Hard Knocks.”

Oakland is one of five teams eligible for the show along with the Lions, 49ers, Giants and Redskins. But Davis is dead set on avoiding the potential distraction of a film crew following his club’s every move.

"It would be disruptive," he said at the NFL owners meeting Tuesday (via ESPN.com). "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."

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Davis even said he’d fire Gruden and re-hire him just to make the team exempt from the show because it’d have a first-year head coach.

"I'm all for whatever he wants to do," Gruden said.

However, everything about the Raiders points to them providing entertaining television with a marquee coach, star players, a bevy of early draft picks and the lingering move from Oakland to Las Vegas in 2020.

Davis may not want the exposure, but football fans (and likely HBO) would love an inside look at the Raiders.

Travis Durkee