Forget the Niners Being a Part of HBO’s ‘Hard Knocks’ Program in August of 2019

The 49’ers were one of the few teams that was in the mix to be a part of this upcoming seasons’ HBO’s Hard Knocks.

According to bowl-betting.pro there are five teams that are could be part of the show, as rules prevent teams with first-year coaches, teams that made the playoffs within the last two seasons, and teams that have been featured on Hard Knocks within the last 10 years from appearing on the show.

Here’s the five teams that could appear on the show this upcoming August – the 49ers, New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions, and Washington Redskins are eligible to be on the show.

As far as the Niners go, they are out of the mix.

Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that the Niners will not be featured on the show this year.

Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch had stated that they did not want to be featured on the show, and as Maiocco reports, the NFL has yet to force a team to appear on “Hard Knocks” against its will.

Being a part of ‘Hard Knocks’ can be both good and bad. On one hand, it can make a team that is starting to grow together stronger, but on the negative side, teams that already have some type of internal issue it can hurt as they are trying to get past it’s issues.

Another Bay area owner, Raiders owner Marc Davis, has already said that he thinks that the silver and black on the show would be “disruptive.”

Raiders coach Jon Gruden has put in for the Detroit Lions to be on the show because he thinks Lions coach Matt Patricia’s beard would be a good fit for the show. Patricia has similarly lobbied for Gruden and the Raiders to be the featured team – kind of funny to see those two go back and forth at each other while neither really want their teams to be part of the weekly HBO August program.

NBC’s Peter King has toyed with the issue, and says that when it comes to ratings, the Raiders are the team that people would want to see – above and beyond that of the 49’ers or Lions.

Also let’s not forget getting Antonio Brown a weekly platform with the way he left Pittsburgh would be kind of fun to watch, love him or hate him.

For now though, we know the Niners will NOT be a part of the program, and that’s probably a good thing as the team looks to get back to being a force in the NFC West in 2019.

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