With a full understanding of the difficult situation HBO seems to be in with the Raiders on this season of Hard Knocks aside, the much anticipated second episode could be summed up in one statistic for me.
Run time spent on unseen footage of Antonio Brown talking about his shredded feet and cryogenic chamber accident that seemed to be concealed from the opener: 2 minutes and 37 seconds.
Run time spent on a breathless recap of Nathan Peterman’s first preseason start (including—multiple—slow-motion replays of him scrambling): 3 minutes, 48 seconds.
I’m not going to get on a high horse about ethics here, because the truth is that each season of Hard Knocks is an awkward slow dance with a new team and new executives, each of whom have their own unique slate of personnel people, coaches and players that they need to elevate, recast into a new light or simply hide from the cameras altogether.