The NY Jets are being forced to participate in this year's Hard Knocks series. Here are three wild conspiracy theories Aaron Rodgers could quietly whisper to the cameraman.
A new season of HBO's "Hard Knocks" is upon us, and it was recently announced that the New York Jets will be the team involuntarily participating. You mean, teams don't want to open their doors and locker rooms to let hordes of cameramen videotape their every move? Shocker.
This year's "Hard Knocks" series ought to play out in a more bemusing manner. Gone are the larger-than-life idiosyncrasies of Rex Ryan; in his place stands the stoic Robert Saleh and, of course, the incomparable Aaron Rodgers.
On a 2010 episode of "Hard Knocks", if an apple fell from a tree, Ryan might have said something like, "Let's eat this d— snack." In 2023, if the same thing happened, Rodgers might pick it up, look up at the sky, and wave his fist saying "Those d— UFOs."
So yes, it should be interesting, to say the least.
What are the wildest conspiracy theories Rodgers may not-so-accidentally blab about on this year's "Hard Knocks"? Here are three for your contemplation.
Hard Knocks, Aaron Rodgers Edition: UFOs are government-manufactured entities meant to distract the public
Let's just dive right into UFOs, shall we?
The New York Jets quarterback and proud "free thinker" shared his polarizing thoughts on potential alien life as recently as February of this year. Rodgers was talking to buddy Pat McAfee about the controversy surrounding a Chinese spy balloon allegedly floating in North American airspace along with other unidentified objects that have been shot down by the U.S.
Rodgers smacked his lips and said it was "interesting timing" since there were "a lot of other things going on in the world" at the time of these sightings. He then brought up the Jeffrey Epstein client list that would be released that same month. Coincidence? Rodgers thinks not.
In line with right-wing ideology, Rodgers insinuated that the U.S. government may be artificially creating these UFO sightings as a way to distract the public from real-world issues, a bit of a sci-fi red herring, if you will.
Guessing the veteran quarterback isn't a huge fan of "E.T." No phoning home for Rodgers this season, he's left Wisconsin in the dust.
Hard Knocks, Aaron Rodgers Edition: 9/11 didn't really happen
If we were the director of "Hard Knocks" and we wanted this season to go as viral as possible, this is what we would do. Prior to the Jets' first game of the 2023 season, which happens to fall on September 11th, assemble a team to take Rodgers to the 9/11 Memorial in New York.
Let him walk around the gaping maw of the concave edifice in the memorial plaza, let him look thoughtfully in the distance while walking the halls of the museum. And then, get a close-up shot of him shaking his head and saying, "Don't you think the government took this one too far?"
Rodgers is an infamous 9/11 truther. This much is known from his interaction with former Packers quarterback DeShone Kizer last year, when Rodgers apparently asked Kizer whether he thinks the terrorist attacks of 9/11 actually happened.
Rodgers didn't say much more about the topic other than telling Kizer to do some research. He doesn't explicitly say the U.S. government staged the entire incident (just like they did with the moon landing, as a certain group of "free thinkers" will claim), but regardless, he has doubts. The ayahuasca smoker and darkness retreat-er, the healing crystal user and nutty professor of football, the man who will be the Jets' quarterback this season has doubts.
And as fate would have it, the Jets' first game of the season really is on September 11th, at home against the Bills. The folks at "Hard Knocks" have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do something incredibly funny, and also over-the-borderline offensive. Can the nation handle Rodgers' personal politics?
Hard Knocks, Aaron Rodgers Edition: Commercial airplanes spread cancer-causing chemicals to control the population
We couldn't make this up if we tried.
For our last notorious Aaron Rodgers conspiracy, we include one of his older controversial beliefs as relayed one night on Sunday Night Football. Back in 2020, Rodgers asked someone whether the trails left in the air by airplanes cause cancer.
In other words, Rodgers is a chemtrail conspiracy theorist, believing that commercial aircraft are intentionally spraying chemical or biological agents around the country for evil purposes.
Scientists have since disputed this theory, but that's just the thing with conspiracists: grounded logic and reason has no effect on them.
So while "Hard Knocks" films other members of the Jets getting ready for the 2023 season, maybe including clips of Garrett Wilson getting into the best shape of his life or Mecole Hardman firing people up in the locker room or Zach Wilson texting a teammate's mom, the footage of Rodgers will be starkly different. Dark, wryly comical, raising all kinds of concerns and questions about the 39-year-old's hare-brained schemes and concocted conceptions juxtaposed against the liberal-leaning NY media.
New York/ New Jersey is home to three airports, after all. The chances of an airplane flying above a Jets practice are quite high, about as high as the chances of Rodgers dropping the words "woke mob" in the upcoming series.
In this "Hard Knocks" season more so than any other, the truth will come to light.
