Tuesday night was the premiere episode of this season's Hard Knocks, featuring the New York Jets and Aaron Rodgers. The first episode did what most had hoped it would do and prominently featured the Jets newly traded for quarterback, as he was mostly the centerpiece of the show. On Wednesday morning, sports talk-show host Colin Cowherd, as usual, didn't hold back on his thoughts about the former Green Bay Packers quarterback on the season premiere episode.

Colin Cowherd says Aaron Rodgers is rebranding himself through Hard Knocks

Aaron Rodgers has been a hot button topic for the national media for sometime now, with Colin Cowherd not excluded. Cowherd has often given his hot takes on the 39-year-old, usually insinuating things like Rodgers is “snarky,” “prickly,” and that ultimately, “Aaron is all about Aaron”.

“I would argue, 13 years ago, I thought I was the first person and the only person, as everybody was sort of slobbering over his talent to ask real questions that needed to be asked,” Cowherd said on his Wednesday episode of The Herd. “Why didn't he get along with his brother? Why doesn't he get along with his parents? I don't like his leadership. He seems prickly to me. There's not a foxhole quality. He's not always embraceable. He's a little snarky. I don't love his personality for a star quarterback.”

Whether any of that is true, Tuesday night's episode seemed to neither touch on or prove any of that to be true, which may be the point.

“HBO and Aaron Rodgers are showing you that you are wrong, Aaron is a good guy. It felt like a little overkill,” Cowherd continued.

Rodgers was the centerpiece of almost the entire show in episode 1. That most likely wasn't done by mistake either. Rodgers was in large part due to the reason the Jets were more of less forced to be on Hard Knocks this season to begin with, coupled with the other qualifications for teams to be on the show.

“But I do know that Aaron and HBO are putting their best foot forward to make Aaron more likeable,” Cowherd said. “Everything's okay, Aaron gets along with everybody, a lot of stuff in Green Bay and on the internet is nonsense — this is a good guy. Whoever said bad stuff about Aaron, I wouldn't know what they're talking about. …I think what this is, what HBO is for Aaron, is actually a gift. It's a rebrand.”

Colin Cowherd is right about Aaron Rodgers

While at times Cowherd's tangents have gone well off into the deep end of nonsense, he has a point about Rodgers here. Rodgers was in need of a rebrand after leaving the Packers. Whether it was his views on the vaccine and pandemic, his coaches, players, his love life, or even his darkness retreat, Rodgers is an enigma, but perhaps not a loved one. He is the embodiment of perception is reality, yet now he looks to be attempting to change that perception in the twilight years of his football career.

Cowherd suggested that this is similar to when Tom Brady left the New England Patriots and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After Brady joined the Buccaneers, Cowherd said he almost immediately rebranded himself, becoming “fun Tom,” the one who let loose and had too much fun celebrating on a boat during the Buccaneers Super Bowl celebration Tom.

During Tuesday's episode, it even felt like HBO was trying to emphasize how likeable Rodgers was in comparison to how he's been portrayed in the media.

“He special, bro. I don't care what nobody says about 8 — he's special,” Jets defensive tackle Al Woods said while talking to defensive end Solomon Thomas during the show. “And he's cool as f—-. He's nothing of what people portray about him on TV.

“Whatever they said about Aaron Rodgers on TV is a lie,” he reiterated while bringing the boom mic down closer.

Whether any of this is intentional or not, just one episode in, Rodgers indeed comes off as very likeable, with all that being reverberated from his teammates, coaches and the “voice of God” himself, Hard Knocks narrator, Liev Schreiber. This may be the Rodgers we see throughout the entire season of the show, either because that's who the real Aaron Rodgers is or that's who HBO producers, the Jets, and Rodgers want us to see.

However, when the season begins, that's when things are likely to get real interesting all over again, where it will just be Rodgers and his teammates and coaches with nothing but the media and the field to tell their story. The only cameras will be those on the field, displaying every emotion, good or bad, as Rodgers and the Jets attempt to live up to every high expectation.

Will the real Aaron Rodgers please stand up then?