Speaker 1: For some men in this room, it's gonna be the
Speaker 1: last time you ever straddled up. And I say that
Speaker 1: not to apply pressure to make it bigger than it is.
Speaker 1: I say that, so tomorrow, soak it up, and then
Speaker 1: when it comes for your time to play, let it rip.
Speaker 1: Because if you do get cut because you weren't quite
Speaker 1: good enough as the team saw it.
Speaker 2: That will hurt. But you could live with that.
Speaker 1: You get cut because you didn't go hard enough, that's
Speaker 1: regret and that will eat you alive. So it's very simple.
Speaker 1: Empty the contain. It's gonna be an unbelievable environment. I
Speaker 1: can't wait to see it, man, I can't wait to
Speaker 1: see it. I'm not gonna sleep very good tonight.
Speaker 3: From the Chris Westling podcast studio, it's the Hard Knocks Podcast,
Speaker 3: the official podcast of it.
Speaker 2: Hard Knocks.
Speaker 3: And that was well, I'm Dan Hansis with my co
Speaker 3: host Colleen Wolf. That was Jeff Ulbrich, the defensive coordinator
Speaker 3: of the Jets, offering up his latest hype speech to
Speaker 3: the players going into their last preseason game. And that's
Speaker 3: one of those fun things about this show.
Speaker 2: So for many of those guys, their last game ever,
Speaker 2: that's it.
Speaker 3: And you don't think about that when you're just following
Speaker 3: the sport and we and I do it on the
Speaker 3: other podcast all the time, kind of poo poo the preseason.
Speaker 3: But these guys are playing for their football lives and
Speaker 3: it's real.
Speaker 2: It's real human stuff.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: And I also just like that he's using empty the tank.
Speaker 5: It's all gas, no break like. There's a lot of
Speaker 5: a lot of car references. I guess too, even though
Speaker 5: it's a plane organization.
Speaker 2: It's right macho.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, but I like that and that and
Speaker 3: that hype speech from Oulbrick goes right into Colleen. I
Speaker 3: think the highlight of the season for yeh a shot
Speaker 3: for shot recreation of the iconic opening credit sequence of
Speaker 3: The Sopranos naturally with that song woke up this morning
Speaker 3: as the musical theme.
Speaker 6: Mm hmm.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you what, kin it.
Speaker 3: It's all clicking here. You have the synergy of two
Speaker 3: Titanic HBO productions. You have the Jets deep ties to
Speaker 3: Jersey and the most famous TV show ever set in
Speaker 3: the Garden State. You have Robert Sala, the head of
Speaker 3: the New York Jets, kind of playing the role driving
Speaker 3: in the car is Tony Sopranos, the.
Speaker 7: Tight shot of his eyes in the rear view mirror.
Speaker 7: I love it.
Speaker 3: The head of the DeMeo crime family driving from the
Speaker 3: Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel shot for shot.
Speaker 5: So Dan actually like check this out and cross reference
Speaker 5: the two and played them side by side.
Speaker 7: He was freaking out when we were watching it.
Speaker 5: I mean I kind of want too, because like I
Speaker 5: just love the Northeast in general, So like, give me Sopranos,
Speaker 5: give me New York, New Jersey, all of it.
Speaker 3: The nostalgia was and hard driving from the Jersey side
Speaker 3: of the Lincoln Tunnel to their respective homes. For Tony,
Speaker 3: it was his suburban estate in North Caldwell. For Sala,
Speaker 3: it's MetLife Stadium, or, as Aaron Rodgers proudly announced in
Speaker 3: this episode.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Jetlife Stadium.
Speaker 3: And I've said it so many times Connie in digital
Speaker 3: print for years, on NFL dot com and on this
Speaker 3: podcast that we've been doing together for almost two full seasons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, an ultimate episode tonight.
Speaker 3: Hard Knocks is the greatest sports docu series that's ever existed,
Speaker 3: and it's because of creative flourishes like that Sopranos homage,
Speaker 3: because it's a simple but like fiendishly clever idea executed
Speaker 3: by obviously some of the most talented people in the medium.
Speaker 3: It's a chef kiss Knie in my favorite moment of
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 5: If anyone can pull it off, it's going to be
Speaker 5: the people at NFL Films n HBO done perfectly. And
Speaker 5: to be honest, I was in on this episode from
Speaker 5: the very opening scene when they were cutting bagels and grilling.
Speaker 5: Maybe it was a grilled cheese, maybe it was a
Speaker 5: French toast. I don't know, but the key to my
Speaker 5: heart is a bread product of some sort. So I
Speaker 5: was already there.
Speaker 2: I mean, what is the for me?
Speaker 3: And it varies, but the go to northeast, you know,
Speaker 3: New York, North New Jersey, Southern New Jersey, Philadelphia area.
Speaker 3: For me, it's an everything bagel, hammegg cheese, salt, pepper,
Speaker 3: ketchup and give me a little bit of that.
Speaker 2: Frank's red hot on it.
Speaker 3: Ooh, that's to me like the hangover cure, huh or
Speaker 3: just fat guy hungry cure. Yeah it's but yeah, seeing
Speaker 3: those shots it does. We've been out here on the
Speaker 3: West Coast now for over a decade. Connie and this
Speaker 3: season is it makes you kind of homesick.
Speaker 7: I know. I was just about to say that it's like.
Speaker 3: Watching The Sopranos does for me when I did a
Speaker 3: rewatch with my wife this past year, who's from Well
Speaker 3: you did. I'm watching it in a total different headspace
Speaker 3: as someone now who's kind of longing for I kind
Speaker 3: of grew up in town that looked like where Tonian
Speaker 3: grew up, and it's this show, which is even though
Speaker 3: it's the New York yet it's very much a New
Speaker 3: Jersey vibe. Yeah, right down to their floor and park headquarters.
Speaker 3: So it's very cool.
Speaker 5: It's perfect. I'm surprised though, you're not going Taylor pork roll.
Speaker 5: And I do feel like my dad always calls it
Speaker 5: tailor pork roll, which I like, and I feel like
Speaker 5: that is maybe not the way that people just say
Speaker 5: pork roll or like, what what do you people say?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: I grew up literally on the border of New York
Speaker 3: and New Jersey in Rockland County, separated Bergen County.
Speaker 2: I would drive to New Jersey to get gas.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's cheaper and they pump it for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you have to my love stupid weird, but
Speaker 3: so I'm not a true New Jersey in and the
Speaker 3: pork roll didn't really translate to the northern New Jersey
Speaker 3: side of where I was what in the same way
Speaker 3: that it's a staple at other places, But I certainly
Speaker 3: had it. Yeah, the disco fries, and I've done I've
Speaker 3: been to a million New Jersey diners in my life.
Speaker 2: You're doing really hungry right now?
Speaker 7: Do you do cream chip beef?
Speaker 2: I've had it, and I've enjoyed it.
Speaker 7: It is one of my favorites in the entire world.
Speaker 5: And my dad and I it's like a tradition and
Speaker 5: it's a sodium bomb and my dad and I would
Speaker 5: go out and if I ever go home for Thanksgiving,
Speaker 5: we'd go out Thanksgiving Eve and then we would come
Speaker 5: home one am. My dad would whip up some cream
Speaker 5: chip beef.
Speaker 3: Speaking of dads, I think we might have to get
Speaker 3: the number one Jets fan in my life. Keith hanss
Speaker 3: my old man on the show before it's over one
Speaker 3: episode left, so maybe that's something for next week. So yeah,
Speaker 3: so you have that great Sopranos moment on the show.
Speaker 3: You have Olbrick, the DC who's really had obviously a
Speaker 3: great season of Hard Knocks setting the tone for where
Speaker 3: they are at and training camp now. But Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 3: has been the star of the season. He's the star
Speaker 3: of the Jets, He's the key to everything. I thought
Speaker 3: this was a really interesting Rogers episode. I think the
Speaker 3: most interesting Aaron Rodgers episode since he's episode one the premiere,
Speaker 3: which was all about Rogers and.
Speaker 2: Before we as on TV is a lot.
Speaker 3: Yeah that's true, but before we get into it, Leev
Speaker 3: Schreiber is the voice.
Speaker 2: Yes or Knocks can't get him.
Speaker 5: It's it's it's sad, it's disappointing, but that's okay.
Speaker 7: We work around this.
Speaker 2: I would like.
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe a little little elbow over and our friend
Speaker 3: Ken Rodgers over there at NFL Films, maybe we can
Speaker 3: get a helicopter landing for the Streiver. Yeah here, it's
Speaker 3: so far and get him on the finale last week?
Speaker 3: Is it possible? Where is there any money in the
Speaker 3: couch cushions to make it happen? I'm just throwing out there.
Speaker 3: We still don't know how much that helicopter costs. We
Speaker 3: don't think about it all the time.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: Anyway, The Lee d Ever Quote of the Week with
Speaker 3: Jason Zummalt standing in for the great actor.
Speaker 2: This Saturday, Aaron Rodgers will take the field as a
Speaker 2: jet for the first time. No place for a neck beard.
Speaker 3: All the thought on the neck beard because that ties
Speaker 3: into something we're going to talk about later. But he
Speaker 3: did clean up his act and you saw it with Rogers. Connie,
Speaker 3: forget this is a great New Jersey episode so far.
Speaker 3: Forget about Springsteen. The boss in New Jersey right now
Speaker 3: is officially Aaron Rodgers. And as this team is preparing
Speaker 3: for Rogers' first preseason action in over half a decade years,
Speaker 3: I mean he hadn't, but he played two series against
Speaker 3: the Giants. You see some of the tension on the
Speaker 3: practice field, and you know, remember what Randall Cobb said
Speaker 3: last week in episode three, do not get on this
Speaker 3: man's bad side. He will not throw you the ball.
Speaker 3: Is the exact cop quote. He's gonna get pissed off.
Speaker 3: He will not throw you the ball. Well, he got
Speaker 3: pissed off. And NFL Films was.
Speaker 2: Miked up in there to catalog it basically twelve to
Speaker 2: fourteen yards of one damn drive.
Speaker 7: It's believable, it's it's so relatable.
Speaker 1: This is drop throo balls five and three wrong routes
Speaker 1: and a fall start.
Speaker 7: I mean seven en counting to be honest.
Speaker 2: Like this was that's sorry New Jersey too.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 5: It was the first time that we got to see
Speaker 5: this other side of Aaron Rodgers. Everything so far up
Speaker 5: unto this point has been very zen, very like just
Speaker 5: he's introspective.
Speaker 2: And schil norkal dude.
Speaker 7: Exactly.
Speaker 3: It's almost sometimes it feels like it's a bit like
Speaker 3: he's laying it on a little thick that he's that guy.
Speaker 2: But here's the competitor coming out, and you.
Speaker 3: Know lies beneath, right, what lies beneath is a furious
Speaker 3: competitor that does not stand for bs now that we're
Speaker 3: getting to the nitty gritty with Week one Monday Night
Speaker 3: Football against the Buffalo Bills down the line, but for Rogers,
Speaker 3: and he admitted it to the media after they played
Speaker 3: their final preseason game and he got in he was nervous,
Speaker 3: like Aaron Rodgers, eighteen year veteran who's won a Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: who's been in countless playoff games, was nervous to play
Speaker 3: two series and just seeing him take total control of
Speaker 3: the field, it's a reminder that he's not just the
Speaker 3: quarterback in the face of the franchise. Now he's the
Speaker 3: guy that everyone looks to, and he can say to
Speaker 3: Garrett Wilson, for instance, seventeen, step into my office and
Speaker 3: it's Rogers on one knee on the sideline.
Speaker 2: Come here, I'm going to talk to you. We're going
Speaker 2: to figure this out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And sure enough we see in that practice they
Speaker 3: do figure it out and they end on a good note.
Speaker 5: Just really, it's like Aaron Rodgers is the god here.
Speaker 7: He is the one that is in charge. He can
Speaker 7: figure this out.
Speaker 5: But when you talk about him being nervous before a
Speaker 5: preseason game since he hasn't played him one since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 5: and obviously all of this attention that he's getting with
Speaker 5: hard knocks and being in the New York market like,
Speaker 5: it reminds me of a conversation I had with Jerry
Speaker 5: Rice a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: What a name drop, I know, but I'll never.
Speaker 5: Forget this because I couldn't believe it. He said that
Speaker 5: he would get so nervous before every game throughout his
Speaker 5: entire career that he would throw up like and it
Speaker 5: never went away, and those nerves were always there. And
Speaker 5: I think, no, matter how long you've been in the league,
Speaker 5: how much success that you've experienced, if that's how you
Speaker 5: operate like that is so I think it was an
Speaker 5: interesting window into Aaron Rodgers and how he goes about
Speaker 5: his business, but his frustration at camp and that practice,
Speaker 5: it felt like to me, the angrier he got, the
Speaker 5: sharper he was. And there's a couple people we work
Speaker 5: with here at NFL Media who I've thought that about.
Speaker 5: When they get angry, they instantly become laser focused and
Speaker 5: they can like they're operating at their highest capacity when
Speaker 5: they are when they're annoyed or when they're angry.
Speaker 3: I've always been like, going back to my school days,
Speaker 3: but then in my newspaper days and even you know,
Speaker 3: having deadlines here at NFL Media, like I'm a procrastinator
Speaker 3: by nature. I need there to be something hanging over
Speaker 3: me and this needs to be done in three hours.
Speaker 3: That's when I lock in. These guys that's get mad,
Speaker 3: get disrespected, they lock in.
Speaker 2: We saw Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 3: Get mad in a different way later on, and we'll
Speaker 3: get to that. I think the other big plot line Connie,
Speaker 3: in this episode, they did a lot on the wide
Speaker 3: receivers and everyone knows the top of the depth chart.
Speaker 3: Garrett Wilson, who caught an Aaron Rodgers touchdown pass in
Speaker 3: that preseason game and looks like he's going to be
Speaker 3: a superstar this season. Alan Lazard, he's he's locked and loaded,
Speaker 3: McCole Hardman, locked and loaded, loaded. Randall Cobb, he's Rogers's buddy,
Speaker 3: so he's locked and loaded, and he continues to get
Speaker 3: a lot of screen time as well. But there are
Speaker 3: guys like Exavier Gibson, undrafted free agent Jason Brownly, and
Speaker 3: it's one of those it's one of those hard knocks tropes.
Speaker 3: They can make anybody, including undrafted free agents, look like
Speaker 3: Jerry Rice. Yeah, And that's how Gibson and Brownly came off,
Speaker 3: both in practices and then the preseason game.
Speaker 7: And it was just adorable.
Speaker 5: They're bromance that they have, the two of them, like
Speaker 5: they are so wholesome. They are competing for a final
Speaker 5: one one spot, that fifth spot, and they.
Speaker 7: Are just like hanging out playing ping pong.
Speaker 5: Like I found it really funny Xavier Gibson's disdain for updowns,
Speaker 5: because that was like, if you lose, you gotta do whatever,
Speaker 5: up downs, push ups, whatever, and it was just like,
Speaker 5: it seems so cute the two of them, like it's
Speaker 5: a legit love for each other that they have. And
Speaker 5: I think that that's cool because they're competing obviously, but
Speaker 5: they can put that aside.
Speaker 3: And this is interesting from a football standpoint because today
Speaker 3: was cut down day in the real world and Gibson
Speaker 3: made the team, Brownly made the team. Another first year
Speaker 3: wide out, Irvin Charles, who we haven't seen Doc Kevin
Speaker 3: Mesh show, you haven't met him yet, made the team.
Speaker 3: So those guys are all safe as of right now
Speaker 3: on the initial roster of fifty three. That could change
Speaker 3: when the churn of rosters, which gets really cruel when
Speaker 3: you make the final fifty three and then you know,
Speaker 3: the Jets could pick up another wide receiver that got
Speaker 3: cut today and one of these guys could get whack.
Speaker 7: So they just our boy Jerome Cap didn't make it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's interesting what we didn't see as
Speaker 3: well in this episode. You see Jerome Cap not be
Speaker 3: able to make a dent in the box score in
Speaker 3: his last preseason game, and then you see him walking
Speaker 3: down the hallway. Would have liked to see the conversation
Speaker 3: and Sala there but shout out that he got an
Speaker 3: Eminem shout out on Twitter.
Speaker 5: I know, and we didn't even talk about this last week,
Speaker 5: that Eminem now back to back years, he's been an
Speaker 5: important plot line of Hard Knocks.
Speaker 7: He was in Detroit hanging out with the Lions, and
Speaker 7: now he pops back up with your own caps. So
Speaker 7: he's a Hard Knock superstar at the.
Speaker 3: Eminem on the Lions sidelines. I remember being a little
Speaker 3: bit uncomfortable to watch.
Speaker 8: It was weird.
Speaker 7: This was more organic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's so famous that you could tell the players
Speaker 3: were a little nervous to be around him, and Eminem
Speaker 3: was a little nervous to be around the players.
Speaker 8: I'd like to use that nervous energy.
Speaker 3: And then I thought the other thing I was interesting
Speaker 3: in terms of an editorial choice, was a lot of
Speaker 3: this conversation about who's going to fill out this wide
Speaker 3: receiver depth chart and they even talk about it. You
Speaker 3: hear Liev say it that there's one spot available. Well,
Speaker 3: there's two spots available. Because Corey Davis stunningly announced his
Speaker 3: retirement out of nowhere. I kind of was expecting all
Speaker 3: the build up through this episode to end with a
Speaker 3: look at the Corey Davis decision and maybe that comes
Speaker 3: next week.
Speaker 2: We'll see, but that that is.
Speaker 3: The wide receiver down low for the Jets, and they
Speaker 3: gave a lot a lot of run probably, And there
Speaker 3: was also you know, our buddy Tanzel Smart, who's been
Speaker 3: a ongoing figure in terms of the underdogs for this series.
Speaker 3: He got a lot of run in this episode as well,
Speaker 3: so he's a little more of that. We even got
Speaker 3: Theucci board, that's right, what happens away from the facility,
Speaker 3: and you saw Tanzel Smart and the other d linemen
Speaker 3: who are all.
Speaker 2: Kind of adorable too.
Speaker 7: Oh, I got it.
Speaker 3: They're like all brothers making a Carcucci board and some
Speaker 3: type of seafood dish that looked.
Speaker 7: Like, I think crawfish of some sort.
Speaker 5: It was a family recipe, just a button the wide
Speaker 5: receiver conversation. Though I absolutely love Randall Cobb's family. They
Speaker 5: have been a constant throughout Hard Knocks. But when he
Speaker 5: had the block the penalty in the last game and
Speaker 5: seeing them watching it and seeing his wife be like,
Speaker 5: oh great, I think we're gonna get a fine in
Speaker 5: the mail. Last year it was about night teen thousand
Speaker 5: dollars in fines, so.
Speaker 3: It's like the equivalent I could I buy like a
Speaker 3: dumb framed poster of from Once upon a Time in Hollywood.
Speaker 7: Okay, okay, is this an attack that feels like it?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Because I did it too.
Speaker 3: I know, I know you guys, you and John your
Speaker 3: husband did it as well. And it costs like one
Speaker 3: hundred and eighty five dollars And my wife's like wait, what,
Speaker 3: like it's not going to bankrupt us?
Speaker 8: But it's like, wait, that was like this is dumb.
Speaker 2: We maybe check with me before we dropped the two.
Speaker 5: Honey always says you must differentiate between wants and needs.
Speaker 2: There you go, can't fixt He's a wise man.
Speaker 3: All right, let's take a break here and when we
Speaker 3: get back, we'll share our MVPs episode four. Victor voting
Speaker 3: system is starting it you know, oh oh, we're getting
Speaker 3: close to the end now. And then of course, uh
Speaker 3: well not of course, little surprise coming up after.
Speaker 7: You know, I don't like surprises.
Speaker 6: Were getting surprised. We'll be right back, all right, Welcome
Speaker 6: back to the Hard Knocks Podcast, the official.
Speaker 3: You know how one, because uh, check out the episode we're.
Speaker 2: Talking about today.
Speaker 3: The last shot you see Aaron Rodgers holding up his
Speaker 3: index finger. Mike Joe Naman so many years ago. And
Speaker 3: then check out.
Speaker 8: The words at the bottom of Chiron.
Speaker 7: Okay, he's really into the Chiron business.
Speaker 2: The Chiron reads.
Speaker 7: Make sure you watch the credits.
Speaker 3: Listen to Around the NFL Hard Knocks Recap wherever you
Speaker 3: get your podcasts. That I mean, doesn't get more official
Speaker 3: than that. Connie, Uh, want to play a game? Sure,
Speaker 3: let's do a game show. Oh no, here we go.
Speaker 3: All right, everybody, it's time to play your favorite game.
Speaker 7: Travis Oor, Jeff, my heart is pounding.
Speaker 5: What is this?
Speaker 3: You may or may not be aware, Colleen Wolf that
Speaker 3: Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelcey and Jet's defensive
Speaker 3: coordinator Jeff Ulbrick have a very similar.
Speaker 2: White boy flow.
Speaker 7: Oh yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: So what I'm gonna do It's very simple, okay, and
Speaker 3: you if you are victorious here, you win a nineteen
Speaker 3: eighty seven Toyota Cameron.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's lightly used.
Speaker 3: It was found in the swampson the metal link card.
Speaker 3: There's a body in the trunk.
Speaker 7: Fifty chance it was in Queen's.
Speaker 3: It's fine, all right, here we go, okay, Travis or Jeff.
Speaker 2: Very simple Okay, you have to get everything right.
Speaker 8: To get the camera, to get the camera.
Speaker 3: God on this, you can get one rung the camera.
Speaker 3: If you get everything right, I'll get the body out
Speaker 3: of the trunk.
Speaker 8: Great, great, all right, let's hit it.
Speaker 2: Eric Roberts the first voice.
Speaker 1: You didn't really have anybody at practice.
Speaker 2: It was kind of the dog days and just the fellas.
Speaker 8: Travis, that's Travis Kelsey.
Speaker 2: That one.
Speaker 1: We didn't really have anybody at practice. It was kind
Speaker 1: of the dog days and just the fellas.
Speaker 2: Wow, okay, you're you're hot already. Here we go, pistol.
Speaker 7: Let's go.
Speaker 2: All right, here we go strong fast athletes. Whoa wait,
Speaker 2: you're good at this.
Speaker 7: I'm really good at ad voices.
Speaker 2: That one would have had me as well. All right.
Speaker 1: Next, Yeah, he's got a superpower of speed and get
Speaker 1: off and it shows up every time he's on the field.
Speaker 2: What all right, let's got another one. Gotta get her once.
Speaker 1: He's created a legacy for himself in this league.
Speaker 8: Jeff, that's a great player.
Speaker 5: Oh nineteen eighty, there's more.
Speaker 2: Last one.
Speaker 3: This one will decide whether the body comes out of
Speaker 3: the camera.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, first things first is great game planning. Hello, right,
Speaker 2: everybody should do it. Thank you, We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2: That's unbelievable.
Speaker 5: So one of my favorite things to do as I
Speaker 5: drive out of here in my brand new camery.
Speaker 3: It only has two hundred and ninety four thousand miles
Speaker 3: on it.
Speaker 2: In addition to the corpse steak.
Speaker 7: The steering wheel just falls off. It's in my hand.
Speaker 5: One of my favorite things to do is listen to
Speaker 5: a press conference from like Eagles and then name check
Speaker 5: who the questions.
Speaker 7: Are from, just like from.
Speaker 5: Memory of working from all like Jeff McLean, uh huh, Elliott, Jack.
Speaker 2: Furnish, John Gonzales exactly. Well, wow, I'm impressed.
Speaker 7: Thank you.
Speaker 3: The best person to transcribe in the NFL is Jerry
Speaker 3: Jones because he speaks in a halting cadence that is
Speaker 3: almost meant for twenty nine year old part time copy
Speaker 3: editors to transcribe. That's a nightmare, it was, But look
Speaker 3: at us now, all right, so there you go. All right,
Speaker 3: let's get to the MVP talk. Now, let's see, let's see.
Speaker 3: Let's see. It's a vector voting system, and at the
Speaker 3: end of next week's finale episode, we will unveil the
Speaker 3: MVP of season.
Speaker 2: Keep on meaning to look this up. I think it's seventeen.
Speaker 3: Eric help us out with that season in the Dean
Speaker 3: of Hard Knocks. It is a hallowed honor. And now
Speaker 3: the votes. The voting counts equally every week, as we
Speaker 3: hit on last week. But now it's time to really
Speaker 3: separate the men from the boys. As were third plays
Speaker 3: vote for MVP worth two points.
Speaker 2: I believe.
Speaker 5: All right, So this may mess up the vector voting
Speaker 5: system in the end, but I can't.
Speaker 7: I have to be true to myself.
Speaker 2: You gotta be true.
Speaker 5: Third place is the entire defensive line. I love them
Speaker 5: so much. They're so cute together. They hang out together,
Speaker 5: and I know that's true of like so many position groups,
Speaker 5: but they have such great personalities and such different personalities.
Speaker 5: And when they were all at Tanzel Smart's house having
Speaker 5: like this nice little meal together and making the Carcucci
Speaker 5: board and Tanzel Smart's wearing a shirt that says I
Speaker 5: want to eat a Carcucci board and Solomon Thomas is
Speaker 5: making meat roses from.
Speaker 2: That was impressive. I gotta say Salomon Thomas is a renaissance.
Speaker 5: He truly is, because he's the first one that brought
Speaker 5: up going to Broadway and seeing a show. Now he's
Speaker 5: out here like putting together these gorgeous charcuterie boards for me.
Speaker 2: The one. It's called Carcucci's right, this show, the one.
Speaker 5: And like John Franklin Myers, who was supposed to be
Speaker 5: watching Smart's daughter, she was just like crawling around in
Speaker 5: between the couch cushions while he was playing Xbox, and.
Speaker 7: He's like, this is how I watch my kids. What's
Speaker 7: the problem here?
Speaker 5: So they're all so adorable and I love their friendship
Speaker 5: that they have, but I really would love for Hard
Speaker 5: Knocks to pay off them going to Broadway because we
Speaker 5: heard at the very end of the show that some
Speaker 5: of the guys talking about different shows that they've seen
Speaker 5: or liked, and I want to go to a Broadway
Speaker 5: show with them.
Speaker 3: Honey. I think you're a wise woman, and that feels
Speaker 3: so natural. Having watched every episode of the show ever,
Speaker 3: that feels like such an episode five right, Hopefully you're
Speaker 3: not spoiling it, but that feels like a fun thing
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I had What do you got there? Grabbers? Do
Speaker 2: you have an update?
Speaker 8: IMDb has this a season twenty of Hard Knocks? Oh twenty,
Speaker 8: it's twenty ish.
Speaker 2: If it's not twenty it's twenty ish.
Speaker 3: I had Tanzel Smart, So it's kind of the same
Speaker 3: place as you. Yeah, do we want to maybe throw
Speaker 3: it to somebody because you had the whole D line?
Speaker 7: I had the entire D line. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Should we just give Smart since he kind of like
Speaker 2: represents him, you know what?
Speaker 7: That's great?
Speaker 3: And I think again, today was cut down day in
Speaker 3: the NFL, and it's not official as of right now
Speaker 3: when we're taping this, but the practice reports from the
Speaker 3: Beat reporters that Tanzel Smart was not seen on the
Speaker 3: field today, which usually usually is a sign the player
Speaker 3: did not make the team, which is a shame.
Speaker 5: They a song get hurt his shoulder, and they just
Speaker 5: rubbed some Tiger bomb on it, which I could not
Speaker 5: believe that that was the fix for it.
Speaker 3: He played through it, and the reason he played through
Speaker 3: is because he knew. He knew he was like almost
Speaker 3: no other player on the defense on the bubble, and
Speaker 3: he played through what was obviously had to be probably
Speaker 3: an extremely painful injury and was just trying to get
Speaker 3: by on an adrenaline and a little bit of bomb.
Speaker 5: Like they had to convince him to go to the
Speaker 5: X ray room. Like once they kind of like saw
Speaker 5: how much he was in pain.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I thought there was a moment on the
Speaker 3: sideline at the end of that preseason game where Smart
Speaker 3: kind of looks up and he's a little undersized compared
Speaker 3: to some of those other big dudes we've talked about here.
Speaker 2: And he says, you think I belong with you guys?
Speaker 3: Right, Like it was like a really kind of a
Speaker 3: sweet moment, and he was like almost like a little brother,
Speaker 3: even though he might be older.
Speaker 2: I think he's twenty seven or so.
Speaker 3: He wants that he wants that approval of them, And
Speaker 3: I think it was maybe JLM was like John Franklin
Speaker 3: Myers was like, yeah, man, you belong, you belong. Nice
Speaker 3: moment and hopefully Smart lands on his feet if it's
Speaker 3: not with the Jets.
Speaker 8: Second place, Connie wait what oh okay, right, yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you. Box Step Box.
Speaker 7: Step second place is Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 7: There were so many moments from him.
Speaker 5: We talked about the frustration during the practice and then
Speaker 5: he kind of like focused everyone wrangled them up, made
Speaker 5: some sense of what wasn't working, and then we saw
Speaker 5: it actually work. But I loved his exchange with jahad
Speaker 5: Ward when they actually played the Giants in this game.
Speaker 7: It was so perfect. I think we have some of that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And just to set it up, it was Rogers
Speaker 3: drops back to pass. It's during his final drive of
Speaker 3: the game, and Ward hits him a little bit late
Speaker 3: huh on a pass and Aaron Rodgers did not like
Speaker 3: that at all.
Speaker 2: Welcome on, what do that? Fine said, I know you are?
Speaker 2: You know, I never heard you.
Speaker 7: I never I don't know who you are. I've never
Speaker 7: heard of you.
Speaker 5: And then they come back at the end and Rogers
Speaker 5: brings it back.
Speaker 2: Again after he threw the touchdown pass.
Speaker 7: It's incredible.
Speaker 2: Don't poke the bear?
Speaker 7: How many times? How many F bombs are dropped there?
Speaker 5: Because I didn't really even notice it until they were
Speaker 5: bleeped out, but not even that. It was also some
Speaker 5: of his exchanges with Nathaniel Hackett, and it was very
Speaker 5: gen Z of him to be wearing the wired headphones.
Speaker 7: It's super trendy.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 5: I don't think he does it because it's trendy. I
Speaker 5: think he does because it is. He said he doesn't
Speaker 5: want radiating.
Speaker 3: I mean, is there anything more on brand than Aaron
Speaker 3: Rodgers saying he doesn't trust air pods because of EMF
Speaker 3: emissions being harmful to his brain. And maybe he'll be
Speaker 3: proven to be right and half the population will be
Speaker 3: dead in thirty years.
Speaker 2: But also it's just the type of nonsense that I was.
Speaker 3: Able to divorce myself with Aaron Rodgers once became a
Speaker 3: quarterback of my favorite team. It's like, oh my god,
Speaker 3: this guy. And he also I think he likes, oh
Speaker 3: the young kids are wearing this. Yeah, TikTok okay. I
Speaker 3: think that's part of it, and that's okay. Like I
Speaker 3: think Aaron Rodgers like what I'm kind of taking out
Speaker 3: of the Aaron Rodgers experience and is that he cares
Speaker 3: very much like what you think of him. And I
Speaker 3: don't think that that makes you a bad person, because
Speaker 3: I think everyone's like that to various varying degrees. But
Speaker 3: there's definitely an image that he's projecting. It's not one
Speaker 3: of those people is like, I don't care what you
Speaker 3: think about me, this is who I am. I think
Speaker 3: it's more carefully cultivated that he would admit. But what
Speaker 3: this show has been good for for him, for his
Speaker 3: brand is you see the authentic side of him where
Speaker 3: he's not protecting who he is, and you see the
Speaker 3: competitor he is, and you see how that great interaction
Speaker 3: with the fans, those kids at Jets practice. That Okay,
Speaker 3: you could say that he knows the MIC's on him
Speaker 3: and the cameras on, but that felt like a genuine
Speaker 3: moment too, that so much has been made of Rogers
Speaker 3: in the last few years, and he's taken a pr beating,
Speaker 3: and I have been vocal in my criticism of him,
Speaker 3: like things he said during COVID that I thought was
Speaker 3: misinformation from a very high public figure in American sports.
Speaker 3: But the person he is, I think a good person.
Speaker 3: And and does he put his foot in his mouth sometimes?
Speaker 3: Does he sometimes try to be the cool guy? Sure,
Speaker 3: but I think he is a good person in addition
Speaker 3: to being obviously a tremendou players.
Speaker 5: It's certainly a carefully curated brand that he's putting out there.
Speaker 5: But I feel like Hard Knocks has been the best
Speaker 5: thing for his brand because you get to see that authentic,
Speaker 5: organic side of him that maybe he doesn't always have
Speaker 5: out for everyone, but it's like when he's on the field,
Speaker 5: like that's exactly who we thought he was.
Speaker 3: And I'll say a good way, yeah, And I'll say,
Speaker 3: because he's this is a little bit out of order,
Speaker 3: but it'll all work, all white boy flow. I have
Speaker 3: Annon Rodgers my first place vote just because I thought that,
Speaker 3: and I think hard Knock has been mindful of not
Speaker 3: going too far down the Rogers rabbit hole every week.
Speaker 3: But this was with his first preseason game and seeing
Speaker 3: the way he prepares and seeing the fire on the field,
Speaker 3: it's just fun to see this guy, this once in
Speaker 3: a generation athlete reeves start his career and having boots
Speaker 3: on the ground here. It's very cool. So I give
Speaker 3: Rogers a first place vote. My second place vote, I
Speaker 3: believe is your first place vote.
Speaker 7: Go ahead, we flipped on that. Nathaniel Hackett.
Speaker 2: There you go.
Speaker 5: He is just so fun loving. I need more Hacket
Speaker 5: like everything. He's so funny and it's like, I want
Speaker 5: to play for this guy. I wish I worked with
Speaker 5: this guy, Like he.
Speaker 4: Just want to fly around like a butterfly exactly.
Speaker 7: I love him. The floby was hilarious. So he's having
Speaker 7: the conversation with Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 5: After Aaron Rodgers, I guess had gotten like, you know,
Speaker 5: his his neck beard fixed up or whatever. I got
Speaker 5: a haircut and stuff, and Rogers says, like certain Pete,
Speaker 5: there's certain people that can touch my hair.
Speaker 7: Actually we have it.
Speaker 2: I have certain people that can touch my hair.
Speaker 4: I would like to say that I'm one of them.
Speaker 4: I also have a Floby glow. What dial it up
Speaker 4: Floby right now? Type it in. You need to see
Speaker 4: the Floby.
Speaker 2: They bring up YouTube, the greatest invention on the projection.
Speaker 4: Screen through the exciting world of Floby precision haircuts.
Speaker 7: It's like from nineteen nineties.
Speaker 2: It's like the early nineties. I remember it. It's an
Speaker 2: insane in commercial products.
Speaker 4: I'm telling you how it didn't make it. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I asked my mom for it all the time. She
Speaker 4: never got it for me. She got me some buzzers.
Speaker 4: But as the old Floby billy, there are really anything
Speaker 4: better than a Floby.
Speaker 3: Okay, Now he's someone Nathan Hackett, for better or worse.
Speaker 3: I don't think he cares what people think. I think
Speaker 3: there are gonna be probably people in the locker room
Speaker 3: that are getting get sideway glances from time to time,
Speaker 3: like this guy's at dork. But I think he's he's
Speaker 3: very naturally himself. And yes, I think he's very so
Speaker 3: much fun.
Speaker 5: Even in that same meeting, he talked about how he
Speaker 5: wants to be the touchdown firework guy who like, as
Speaker 5: soon as anyone gets to the red zone, even though
Speaker 5: he calls it the gold zone, Like this guy is
Speaker 5: just waiting, waiting to like set off there.
Speaker 3: I think the line is there's a up there in
Speaker 3: the box waiting to hit the button.
Speaker 8: That's it. It's so good.
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's just his.
Speaker 5: And then he's using the time in the film room
Speaker 5: to show the players how they're not celebrating together or
Speaker 5: a touchdown, Like it's not like who did what wrong here?
Speaker 5: Or like how can we improve there, It's like, let's
Speaker 5: make sure that these celebrations are in unison.
Speaker 8: Guys.
Speaker 2: He's such a positive guy.
Speaker 3: He's got obviously a sense of humor that he wears
Speaker 3: on a sleeve, if that makes any sense, And he
Speaker 3: you it makes sense. I've said this before and I'll
Speaker 3: say it again. Why Rogers likes him so much. There's
Speaker 3: no ego here. In fact, he knows the score. There's
Speaker 3: no way. The fact that all you heard leading up
Speaker 3: to the during the courtship of Rogers and the Jets
Speaker 3: was how much Rogers loved Hack. It you've seen it
Speaker 3: over these past four weeks that he doesn't challenge Rogers
Speaker 3: in ways that would rub Rogers the wrong way. He's
Speaker 3: kind of like his wingman in a way. And I
Speaker 3: also watch this and I understand why maybe it didn't
Speaker 3: work out for him in Denver, because I don't know
Speaker 3: if this is big chair energy, but to be the
Speaker 3: wingman of one of the greatest quarterbacks who ever lived
Speaker 3: and be on the same page and have the respect
Speaker 3: of the players because they understand that you're in it
Speaker 3: and you're a fun guy, Like it's been a great.
Speaker 2: Show for it.
Speaker 5: But we also saw him fired up, and we saw
Speaker 5: like an angrier side of him when things weren't going
Speaker 5: right in that practice. Hackett was pissed too, and he
Speaker 5: was like, it's not all sunshine and butterflies all the
Speaker 5: time with him, Isn't it weird though?
Speaker 3: When there are people in your life that are like
Speaker 3: good time, happy people and then you see him mad
Speaker 3: and it's just like a little bit more.
Speaker 8: Like, Oh, I don't like it. Yeah, it's not for me.
Speaker 2: Sean Kelly, Sean.
Speaker 7: Kelly, Yeah, Sean was being sassy today.
Speaker 3: He's like the most positive guy in the world. Uh, huh,
Speaker 3: the happiest guy I've ever known, Philadelphia's own. That's right,
Speaker 3: But can you imagine Sean Kelly getting angry? No, I
Speaker 3: wanted to be like disturbing, like there are people like that.
Speaker 3: You can't imagine the mad just like we all have
Speaker 3: our moments.
Speaker 7: I still can't really picture it, to be honest.
Speaker 8: But we have one more Hackey clip that I think
Speaker 8: was my favorite clip. I clipped it and I want
Speaker 8: to use it. I don't wants to brush over it.
Speaker 2: Cause it's it's a funny. I don't know.
Speaker 8: I love the association of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, go ahead and let her.
Speaker 4: We like to call this the Golden Day. Hey, this
Speaker 4: is the Golden Day. Now, how many people here have
Speaker 4: seen a movie all gold member?
Speaker 2: That makes me so proud? Right now? That is so great.
Speaker 4: We all know we talk about this as the red zone, right,
Speaker 4: that's what most of the world calls it.
Speaker 2: It's not the red zone because that is what is red? Mean?
Speaker 2: What the we call it the red zone for?
Speaker 8: Let's go get that.
Speaker 2: Gold I don't know.
Speaker 8: I love Austin Powers movies, so that was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you, I hear you.
Speaker 3: I think you know it's a great point, though you
Speaker 3: know what else he is popped up repeatedly in his
Speaker 3: MVP conversation. Yeah, I am excited for next week's finale
Speaker 3: because Hackett is a very real player. I don't want
Speaker 3: to end on a sobering note, but one of the
Speaker 3: best moments of episode three last week was Randall Cobb
Speaker 3: clocking and then letting everyone on the sideline know that
Speaker 3: Thomas more said runs like a bastard off the field
Speaker 3: to stay loose because he's a dad.
Speaker 2: He was cut.
Speaker 3: He was waving today and he tweeted something like, don't
Speaker 3: panic everybody. Maybe he's gonna come back and there's something
Speaker 3: being worked out. I hope so, because I was looking
Speaker 3: forward to watching mor said all year.
Speaker 7: We got it, we need it, we need we need
Speaker 7: him back.
Speaker 5: Also, we need to pay off Al the Jeweler Woody
Speaker 5: Johnson's Shane.
Speaker 7: We had a listener, Joe.
Speaker 5: Helstad shout out Joe Joey, who sent me the instagram
Speaker 5: of Al the Jewelers so we could actually see what
Speaker 5: the was.
Speaker 7: And it was Woody and the Jets.
Speaker 2: Okay, we thought it.
Speaker 8: Was let's go Jets.
Speaker 3: I can't teach stupid, No, you can't. Thanks Joe two
Speaker 3: other things. The Jets defensive line coach is named Aaron
Speaker 3: White Cotton. That's just wild to me. And I think
Speaker 3: that's it. I think that's everything. Everyone was into the
Speaker 3: the song Ski by Sexy Red.
Speaker 7: Can you tell me how it goes?
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't know what's going on. Oh.
Speaker 5: I also liked the song the New York New York version,
Speaker 5: the cover forget It.
Speaker 2: Give me Frank, I mean give me Frank.
Speaker 7: Frank is a staple. It's a classic. We love it.
Speaker 2: You give me all blue eyes. Okay, that was.
Speaker 7: A good one.
Speaker 5: And then I also just thought it was kind of
Speaker 5: touching at the end of that game in the locker
Speaker 5: room that Sala was like, all right, this is it.
Speaker 7: Like make sure you take a look around, hug.
Speaker 5: Someone, go up to someone, like have those moments now,
Speaker 5: because that's it.
Speaker 2: That is it. Good stuff.
Speaker 3: We'll be back next week the season finale of Hard
Speaker 3: Knocks Who with special guests, other special stuff.
Speaker 2: It's a finale. It's got to be big.
Speaker 7: Are there going to be bread products.
Speaker 2: Until next week? Heed the call?
Speaker 3: You know it, salt pepper, ketchup, a.
Speaker 5: Little bit of Frank, give me an everything, bagel extra
Speaker 5: toasted
Speaker 3: Frank Sinatra, Frank's Red Hot, and Frank Everything A rank
Speaker 3: all day,