Much like the first sip of Ayahuasca, Hard Knocks is the start of an emotionally and spiritually impactful journey that Aaron Rodgers is quite experienced with.
That’s right, baby. NFL football is back! (Kinda)
Teams are beginning to report to training camp, and with that, we will be blessed with a new season of the late-summer staple, HBO’s Hard Knocks. If you’re here reading our sports blog (thank you for reading), I would be pretty shocked if you didn’t already know what Hard Knocks is. However, just in case you’re uninitiated, it’s a show that follows an NFL team through training camp and roster trimming while they prepare for the NFL regular season.
Hard Knocks is a great way to get fully ready for football season. It does a great job generating hype through a dramatized documentary-style training camp. You get wrapped up in the NFL news cycle while there’s no actual meaningful games happening, so by the time that first kickoff comes, you’re ready to get in there and have the time of your life like Zach Wilson at his mother’s book club.
Speaking of Zach Wilson (yeah yeah, I know it was a crude segway and a juvenile joke), this year’s subject for the show will be the New York Jets.
This is the perfect team for the show. They’re a pretty young team looking to build on some promising players to make a real push towards making and succeeding in a postseason for the first time since 2010.
Their defense was stellar, featuring the likes of rookie sensation Sauce Gardener at corner and recent recipient of a massive contract Quinnen Williams on the line. The offense was another story. We’ll get an inside look into how Zach Wilson is taking the fact that just two years ago, he was picked second overall in the 2021 NFL Draft to be a franchise changing player for the Jets, but after having done nothing but throw interceptions and refuse culpability for two seasons, he’s the back-up.
Oh yeah, and the guy he’s backing up happens to be four-time NFL MVP and four-day “darkness retreat” participant Aaron Rodgers. When he hasn’t been busy taking psychedelics, he’s been picking apart defenses with ruthless precision over his illustrious career, and there’s little doubt that he’ll be a first-ballot hall of famer.
I’m expecting the guy to be a good watch. I feel like either he’s just going to say some wacko stuff or he’ll be brutally passive-aggressive to the cameras. He’s pretty loose and fun when he’s on Pat McAfee’s show, so I think he’ll be an entertaining subject. After leaving Green Bay, where he had been since 2005, for New York, he was already the offseason’s biggest storyline. Why not put the cameras on him?
Interestingly, for the first time this year, the Jets will NOT allow the filming of players being cut, citing the fact that they believe it’s “inhumane”. Honestly, yeah, they’re kinda right, so good on the Jets. We’ve been watching people’s dreams and livelihoods be crushed for our entertainment (but they don’t call it Soft Knocks). If this was an option, it’s a little surprising that teams haven’t banned this in the past. I’m assuming it’s one of two reasons.
- No one thought to ask. They didn’t even think they could push back on it.
- The Jets had leverage, as this is the first time in the 19 seasons of Hard Knocks where no team volunteered to be the subject, so the Jets were forced to do it. The Jets knew there was no other option waiting for HBO, so they made their own demands.
On the topic of teams being forced to do the show: There are two criteria that if a team meets, the league can make them do the show. The first is that the team doesn’t have a first-year head coach. The second is that the team has not made the playoffs in the past 2 seasons. I bring this up because if the New England Patriots fail to make the playoffs this season, they will be eligible to be forced onto Hard Knocks for the first time in the show’s history (assuming they don’t make the idiotic decision of firing Bill Belichick).
I think the league would jump right on this considering the behemoth the Pats were for two decades straight. It would be awesome to watch my favorite team on Hard Knocks, but I have no doubt in my mind that Belichick would make it the most miserable experience possible for HBO and the league. Though, none of this speculation will matter after Mac Jones wins the MVP and Super Bowl for New England this season.
Despite the lack of cut footage, I’m looking forward to the new season, premiering August 8th. I’m hoping we get to see more classic moments like the ones the show has gifted us with in the past.
NETFLIX’S NEW SHOW – QUARTERBACK
In addition to Hard Knocks, there is a new series out on Netflix called Quarterback. It’s a docuseries following three QBs through the 2022 season, on and off the field. It’s a pretty good watch. I’m through four of the eight episodes and there’s a ton of good insight into the routines and personalities of these guys. It’s amazing to me how much mental preparation these guys do and the physical beating they take. The three QBs are Patrick Mahomes, Kirk Cousins, and Marcus Mariota. I don’t have too much to add about the show, as it’s less exciting and more just interesting, plus it’s covering a time that’s still fresh in our minds. I will, however, leave my brief thoughts about the storylines from each of the three guys.
Patrick Mahomes seems like a fun dude who would be cool to hang out with, and he’s obviously an electric talent on the field. Seeing how the league’s best player spends his time when he’s not playing the games is good stuff. My only gripe would be that he sometimes comes across as annoyingly full of himself and cocky, but maybe you need that at his level, and he’s earned the right to do some of that I suppose.
Kirk Cousins is my favorite part of the show. I think he’s an underrated quarterback who deserves more credit for his production and ability. It’s shown that he’s clearly a tough guy who wants to win and is doing all he can for the team. Off the field, he comes across as a wholesome, good guy, and he seems to have an awesome family and home. The show has made me a fan of his.
Mariota’s segments are kind of meh, although I haven’t yet got to the part of the season where he’s benched for Desmond Ridder, so we’ll see if that changes. It looks like he’s a nice, hardworking, genuine dude who wants to do well, but it feels like the off the field stuff isn’t showing anything that interesting. Plus, his on the field play is pretty mediocre.
The show is solid. Along with Hard Knocks’ imminent arrival, it definitely gets my gears going for some football, and I can’t wait for NFL Sundays.