Raiders Recap: Hard Knocks

Hello, it is I, your resident AFC West blogger here to give you a recap of all the best Hard Knocks action. The show can obviously be a little bit of a disaster for some teams, but this episode was a promising start.

Quick hits:

– It started out with a pretty great speech from Gruden at the opening of camp. He emphasized all your basic points, with the killer line of “Everybody in the NFL: ‘I have a dream of making it in the NFL. I got a dream of winning the Super Bowl, I got a dream of being in the Pro Bowl.’ “I’m really not into dreams, anymore OK? — I’m into fucking nightmares … You’ve gotta end somebody’s dream.”

– AB’s Feet were obviously a topic of discussion, but the cowards at HBO were too scared to show them. I have no such reservations.

– ‘Last Chance U’ star Ronald Ollie fucked around, missing a training session while also missing drills because of an achilles injury. He was consequently cut by Gruden.

– Johnathan Abrams apparently knows a shit-ton about horses, as he basically rattled off a whole poor Richard’s almanac of horse facts while him and Clelin Ferrell rode some around wine country. Abrams later got chewed out for playing WAY too hard in padless practice. He was easily the star of the series so far.

– Gerald Gillum (G-Eazy) showed up to watch practice, apparently taking getting passed over to play Elvis well. Guy Fieri and his kid (Ryder, what an awesome name) also made an appearance, completing the holy hair trinity of Gruden, Davis and Fieri.

– John Madden also showed up, and nothing gets my football juices flowing more than hearing those velvety tones talking about 7-man sleds.

– They ended with a memorial to Cliff Branch, with a bunch of players wearing 21 to honor the franchise great.

Overall, I think it was a solid start. AB looks like he is meshing with the team well and him and Carr have a good personal relationship.