The first episode of this season of Hard Knocks featured an awful lot of Aaron Rodgers, which is not surprising as he is the biggest reason HBO selected the New York Jets as the team they’ll follow this season.
The episode highlighted Rodgers first week of camp in New York, his love of Hard Knocks narrator Liev Schrieber (who flew in for a practice to meet the star QB), and his budding relationships with young stars like Garrett Wilson and Sauce Gardner. There was also the secondary storyline of Zach Wilson trying to embrace being demoted to Rodgers’ backup and making the most out of his opportunity to learn from an all-time great as he will look to revitalize his young career once Rodgers ends his.
However, while all of that was fairly entertaining, it did not hold a candle to the best moment of the first episode which took place during a very brief check in with the defensive line. Solomon Thomas was trying to get his fellow linemen to join him for a Broadway show, but had some concerns about whether all of them could behave appropriately at the theater. His chief concern was with Tanzel Smart, who was offended that his etiquette would be questioned when he was just trying to broaden his horizons by going to a Broadway show and eating a “car-coochie” board.
Tanzel Smart pronouncing charcuterie is an all-time #HardKnocks moment (via @StreamOnMax @NFLFilms) pic.twitter.com/5pDEVZvb27
— B/R Gridiron (@brgridiron) August 9, 2023
Look, charcuterie is a tough word and we’ve all fumbled saying something before, but “car-coochie” is an all-timer and sent his fellow linemen into hysterics. This really was the most entertaining part of the show. Thomas insisted they’d like going to Broadway but the rest of the big fellas had concerns about seat size and if it’d hurt their knees to be crammed in a theater seat. Only Smart was into it, but he was the one Thomas had reservations about. I really hope the second episode features all of them going to a show and getting their reviews of it. I also hope they get Smart a charcuterie board.
Source: https://uproxx.com/sports/jets-hard-knocks-tanzel-smart-charcuterie-video/