Aaron Rodgers’ Hard Knocks debut cements his status as football’s biggest weirdo

polygon.com:

The New York Jets are the team everyone is talking about this summer, thanks to a busy offseason and higher expectations than the fan base has had in years. It’s also the team HBO has decided to follow for its annual Hard Knocks docuseries.

Along with an excellent 2022 rookie class ready to take on an even bigger role in the team, the Jets have the distinctly strange privilege of being the new home of elite quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers is not only one of the NFL’s best players, but also one of its weirdest dudes, with behavior that ranges from the somewhat silly (a four-day stay in a pitch-black cave to figure out whether he wanted to keep playing pro football) to the downright unethical (misleading NFL officials about his COVID vaccination status). As it turns out, that combination makes for a fascinating Hard Knocks season right off the bat.

Like most seasons of Hard Knocks, the 2023 iteration starts by introducing the audience to some of the team’s most exciting players, who we’ll be following over the next few weeks. Unlike previous seasons, where the show is more about the entire team, there’s no attempt at all to hide the fact that this year is the Aaron Rodgers show. And everyone, from the stands full of fans who come out to watch his first practice to his new teammates, has a ticket.

Rodgers is the lens through which every other part of this season of Hard Knocks is focused. Coaches and teammates are often introduced to the viewer when they first meet Rodgers — sometimes by saying that they’ve been fans of his since elementary school. Other times we get side conversations from groups of players talking about their admiration for their new QB both on and off the field: “Whatever they say about Aaron