Colin Cowherd believes the Jets should point the finger at themselves.
After vocally expressing their disinterest throughout the offseason, the Jets were selected to be featured on “Hard Knocks,” the annual documentary series by HBO, on Wednesday.
When the Jets were included among four finalists for the show in early June, head coach Robert Saleh pointedly told reporters that the NFL and network should look elsewhere.
But Cowherd, who hosts “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” on Fox Sports 1, thinks the decision was inevitable.
“You get Aaron Rodgers, this is what you get,” Cowherd said on the show. “That’s the downside to being Mr. Personality. Mr. Vaccine.
“I don’t disagree with everything Aaron Rodgers has said about politics or vaccines. But when you become Mr. Polarizing, you’re noisy in the offseason, you want to tell us where you go in the offseason, condescendingly, sort of snarky, take jabs at lots of people. This is what HBO wants.
“And now with Netflix in the game, you know they’re looking for juice and heaters and gossip.”
Rodgers ripped the decision, claiming, “They forced it down our throats and we gotta deal with it.”
The star 39-year-old quarterback, whose arrival provides the Jets as much hope as the team has had in some time, will likely be the focus of this year’s series both for his exploits on the field and his more colorful personality off the field.
And with Netflix releasing a rival series titled “Quarterback” this week, a similar documentary series closely following three NFL quarterbacks, Cowherd is adamant HBO’s decision was clear, regardless of the Jets’ sentiment.
“So as Netflix announces theirs, HBO wants to one-up them,” Cowherd said. “And you know what they’re looking for in this series in ‘Hard Knocks.’ They want to be more interesting than Netflix. They’re looking for juice and gossip and rumors and inflammation.
“The A, B, C, D’s of this move: A, the Jets are the most interesting team now because of Rodgers. B, Aaron sort of likes to control narratives, won’t be able to here. He can be prickly. C, the Jets did not want this. Teams that are on it don’t have a great track record of winning. The last 14 teams on ‘Hard Knocks’ have one playoff win. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”
The Jets were last on “Hard Knocks” in 2010 when they were coached by the charismatic Rex Ryan.
“The downside of being a quarterback with an opinion on vaccines, an opinion on media, and wanting his own voice, being viewed as polarizing and building his brand — that’s why the Jets got it,” Cowherd said. “That’s exactly why the Jets got it.”
