Antonio Brown Drama With Raiders Seems to Have Helped Draw Viewers to 'Hard Knocks'

NFL fans were pretty hyped about HBO's "Hard Knocks" series to follow the Oakland Raiders, considering the amount of personalities on the roster and coaching staff. However, the first episode was a bit dull for Hard Knocks standards.

There was more intrigue in episode two, however, and it showed in the ratings.

According to an HBO spokesperson, the second episode garnered 879,000 viewers on Tuesday night. In fact, it's the largest amount of viewers for the second episode of "Hard Knocks" since 2012, which covered the Miami Dolphins releasing wide receiver Chad Johnson.

This increase in viewership shouldn't come as a shock if you've been following the news lately. And there's one person in particular responsible for it -- Antonio Brown.

The episode covered Brown's cryotherapy incident, in which he suffered severe frostbite on his feet, which HBO cameras caught at the expense of those with a faint heart.

Not only that, but it briefly covered Brown's grievance with the NFL over his Schutt AiR Advantage helmet, which is no longer approved by the league due to it failing multiple concussion tests. While no one on the Raiders would speak about it on camera, HBO used news clips from NFL Network to provide viewers information about the controversy surrounding Oakland's mercurial receiver.

The second episode definitely exceeded expectations set by the season debut, and Brown is seemingly the one to thank.