By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

There are years in which I watch every second of the HBO series Hard Knocks and some years in which I forget it’s even on. One year I recorded it, then tried to binge watch the entire series and bolted halfway through the first week.

But much like shows such as Who Wants To Be a Millionaire that were unlike anything anyone had ever seen before, there comes a time when enough is enough.

This year has proven just that.

Even though NFL teams stand in line to avoid being chosen, this year seemed like a dream scenario for HBO with the Oakland Raiders. Jon Gruden, Antonio Brown and all their miscellaneous Raiderness.

But it was obvious that the team put the clamps on HBO from the start. Brown turned out to be too much of a sideshow and became more of an interruption than a storyline. Gruden was everything you’d expect, but there was really nothing else. Just a lot of air time about backup quarterbacks that no one will ever hear from again.

Most telling was that there weren’t the usual parade of players being called into the GM’s office, which is the payoff to the whole series. You watch these players struggle to make the team and then see their dreams either get dashed or realized. Sure, it’s kind of a seen-one-seen-them-all situation, but it’s still a very personal moment and can be great television.

Vontaze Burfict is another example of the shackles that the Raiders obviously applied. He’s controversial, he’s outspoken, often accused of dirty play and someone you’d expect the cameras and parabolic microphones would be all over. You hardly even saw him.

It’s hard to believe but what we got was a sanitized version of the Oakland Raiders, a team that has spent its existence living on the fringes of the NFL.

The late Oakland owner Al Davis wouldn’t have even watched. Not sure I should have either.