Official: Raiders to appear in 2019 season of HBO’s Hard Knocks

After months of speculation that the Raiders would be the perfect choice for this season’s Hard Knocks, it’s officially a go. The Raiders made it official Tuesday they will be featured on the long running HBO show.

Even as recently as a couple hours before the official announcement, Jon Gruden was playing coy. But his tone about it seemed to suggest something was up. He spoke of the team’s rookies and ended the statement by saying “Who knows, maybe Hard Knocks will come and cover that. That’d be awesome, wouldn’t it?”

He has up to this point said very clearly that he did NOT want Hard Knocks here. This statement today was obviously laced with sarcasm.

As the offseason has gone along, the Raiders have made moves that had many, including myself, saying they were a made-for-TV operation this season. Gruden was already in house and then he hired fellow veteran TV NFL analyst Mike Mayock as GM. Then they went about trading for Antonio Brown and signing the likes of Vontaze Burfict and Richie Incognito. Combine that with having four draft picks in the top 40 and it was a no-brainer.

This season of Hard Knocks will premiere August 6 at 10pm on HBO.