Raiders selected to appear on HBO series, Hard Knocks; 49ers officially avoid another year

The Oakland Raiders have been selected to appear this year on "Hard Knocks," which is produced by NFL Films and HBO.

NFL teams are eligible unless they have a first-year head coach in place, made the playoffs in the past two seasons, or appeared on "Hard Knocks" in the past 10 years.

NBC Sports Bay Area reported on May 13 that the San Francisco 49ers, who were eligible, would not be featured on the popular reality sports documentary series. That report has now been made official with the Raiders being named as the featured team.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is probably relieved by the news. He had no desire to have his team featured on "Hard Knocks" and explained his stance against the show at the end of last season.

"It's a hard, hard, bad stance on Hard Knocks," he said. "You would see the worst entertainment possible by me."

General manager John Lynch further explained why the 49ers aren't interested in being featured on the show.

"It's not something we would be really excited about," Lynch told NBC Sports Bay Area. "I love the show, but I think some things are best left behind closed doors. I fundamentally have a problem with cutting players and things of that nature (on camera). It's not something we'd be thrilled about."

49ers president Al Guido also shared why Shanahan was against having the HBO cameras following him and his squad.

"Kyle was pretty straightforward on the Hard Knocks comment," Guido told 95.7 The Game. "Listen, we know that they can select us and frankly, we probably don't have a choice. There's a lot of things behind the scenes I think that Kyle feels like should not be shared.

"I don't mind sharing this one. I think Kyle struggles with cutting guys on camera. He feels like that's very personal. These guys are fighting for their careers, and lives, and how much it means to be an NFL player. To commercialize that, he's never been a big fan of that. I've let the NFL know our stance on that front."

Now the 49ers have to make the playoffs and stay in contention each season to continue avoiding an appearance on the show.

The Raiders are not willing participants themselves. Owner Mark Davis, like Shanahan, is against appearing on "Hard Knocks."

"It would be disruptive," Davis told ESPN in March. "We've got a lot of business to take care of, get ready for the season. I appreciate that they might think we'd be great TV, but we got something to accomplish."

"Hard Knocks" debuted in 2001. The show, which follows NFL teams during training camp and preseason, featured the Cleveland Browns last year.

The 49ers prefer to manage what is shown to the outside world through their own online documentary series, "Brick by Brick," which is developed by the team's in-house studio. That series, however, doesn't offer the same level of behind-the-scenes coverage as the HBO series.

There has been speculation that the possibility of the 49ers hosting a game in China in 2020 would remove them from the list of candidates to appear on "Hard Knocks" this year. The fact that they won't be featured doesn't necessarily guarantee a game overseas for the team.

NBC Sports Bay Area also reported that there has been no league-wide discussion of a potential game in China and the possibility of one being organized in time for the 2020 season remains a longshot.