The season premier of HBO’s Hard Knocks is in the books, and it was a fascinating look inside a professional training camp, particularly that of the Raiders who are in the midst of trying to turn around a franchise that’s been in the dumps of late.
As you might imagine, the episode featured a lot of Oakland’s biggest personalities- Jon Gruden, defensive line coach Brentson Buckner, Derek Carr and Antonio Brown. Gruden led off the episode with an impassioned speech about turning the dreams of others into nightmares. It was very clear from the start that Gruden is not putting up with any nonsense this year and Raider football is serious business.