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From initial reluctance to final acceptance, the New York Jets football team made their appearance on the premiere episode of this season's version HBO's Hard Knocks on Tuesday night. After a long and lengthy debate on who would be the eventual team to be on this year's season of the show, the Jets were always the heavy favored team, being that they had a team worth of intriguing stories to tell, including that of their newly traded for quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. After just one episode, it's easy to see why fans were so intrigued by the AFC New York team. With a roster brimming with stars — young and old — and a season filled with high expectations, this has all the makings of a story that needed to be told from the very beginning.
Now, lets get into anything you may have missed in episode 1.
Aaron Rodgers is a nice guy
What's always so fascinating about documentaries is seeing a different side of players. As fans and analysts, we only typically see one side of the person, that is the player. We'll speculate and argue while seeing their style of play on the field, judging that they are the same person on it as they are off it, which, admittedly, is unfair. Not that documentaries can tell the whole truth either, as anything could be removed from the final cut, but in just one episode, Rodgers comes off as genuinely likeable.
“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.
Watching not only how Rodgers interacted with his teammates and coaches shows just how valuable he is to this year's Jets team, who is looking to him to solve decades worth of problems. Rodgers breaks a lot of stigma's he's encountered over the years about himself in just one episode. He seems like just any other regular guy when he's doing things like quoting popular comedy movies or telling Liev Schreiber he has the “voice of God”.
Focusing on the stars
Often times in Hard Knocks, the directors and producers tend to focus a lot on the unknown players, which can still be entertaining. However, as loaded with talent as this Jets team is, it at least did right in episode 1 of focusing on the stars of the team, namely Rodgers. The former Green Bay Packers quarterback is likely to be a centerpiece of the show for the entire season (or at least we hope), as camera's are unlikely to shy away from him too much. And good thing is, at least in the initial episode, Rodgers seems to be enjoying himself and was on a good percentage of the show.
“So tell me, how come nobody wants to do the show?” Schreiber asked Rodgers.
“I think people are worried about it being a distraction,” Rodgers told Schreiber. “There's a lot of misnomers about it. I'm having a great experience.”
Outside of Rodgers, cornerback Sauce Gardner and wide receiver Garrett Wilson had their fair share of screen time as well. In fact, fans got a good glimpse of seeing the two young stars that are some of the best at their positions already battling out in practice with each other.
First time appearance of Liev Schreiber
As special as this season of Hard Knocks is being portrayed, having actor and voice of the show, Liev Schreiber arrive at the Jets training camp in a helicopter was nothing short of good television. The 55-year-old actor arrived for nothing else more than to be there as a fanboy — and possibly at the request of HBO. Watching him interact with Rodgers and others on the show was just plain fun, as you could tell that Schreiber was just like any one of us who would have been in his situation, eating up the moment, where even at one point jokingly threatening not to let go of a ball.
Nathaniel Hackett, Sean Payton fiasco
Again, this season is hitting in stride already by touching on the topics that needed to be touched on. In this case, it was the Nathaniel Hackett, Sean Payton feud over Payton's recent comments on Hackett's coaching abilities while he was the head coach for the Denver Broncos last season. While it probably could have been discussed a little more in length by getting more access to Hackett, seeing Rodgers playfully distract his offensive coordinator as they were playing a game throwing the football at the pylon was nothing short of humorous, adding to what the tone of this season of the show will look like.
