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I love Hard Knocks. Nothing gets me more excited for football than going behind the scenes of what we speculate about all summer long. Unfortunately, we’re never getting a Patriots Hard Knocks as long as Belichick is here, though I’d bet Mr. Kraft would be willing to open up the doors to it once that day comes where a new coach takes over, hopefully many, many years from now.

Texans Hard Knocks is as close as we’re ever getting to a Patriots Hard Knocks, and that was on display in episode one, with great stuff from Wilfork, Vrabel, Romeo Crennel and, of course, Bill O’Brien.

Let’s start with Wilfork, because I’m not sure I’ve seen anything that’s brought me as much joy as watching him drop bombs on the basketball court, while Mrs 75 cheers him on. Just more evidence of what a freak athlete Wilfork is.

One other Wilfork area that stood out to me was during joint practices with the Redskins with JJ Watt asking Wilfork to just blast somebody. Wilfork calmly replied that he could if he wanted to, but he’s just trying to focus on getting himself better. Thought it was a good illustration of how a 10+ year veteran operates versus Watt who’s ready to take on the world every moment of every day.

Speaking of Watt, the most unintentionally hilarious part of episode one to me was after Romeo Crennel chews out the entire defense for playing like shit. Watt then goes full Ren McCormack, going off by himself, working on important things for a defensive tackle like one-handed catches. Kinda felt like it was all just for show. All that was missing was some Kenny Loggins and Watt angrily tossing a beer bottle next to his Volkswagon.

Watt is a crazy good player and how hard he works is apparent. He stayed an hour after his solo work to sign a ton of autographs. So it’s impossible to give Watt too much crap.

I was happy to see plenty of Mike Vrabel in this episode. Obviously he’s one of the all-time dynasty Pats, but his sense of humor in New England was legendary and we only saw a little bit of it in this episode. Belichick called Vrabel one of the smartest players he ever coached and his work with the Texans linebackers shows not just what kind of smart, tough player Vrabel was, but how he expects the same out of his players.

Also loved when Vrabel reminded his players “This isn’t work”.

Finally we end with Bill O’Brien who reminds me so much of my college hockey coach it’s scary. He always seems just a hairpin away from going ham on you for something, but for some reason you want nothing more than to do well for him. 

One interesting moment was when O’Brien was quizzing rookies about the identities of other guys on the team. It shows how important O’Brien feels it is for the team to know each other, not just as numbers on the field but as people.

This echoes back to Belichick not using numbers on jerseys in OTAs and early in training camp – something he caught some crap for from those in the media that felt like it was solely meant to make it hard for them to know who is there.

No, Belichick knows this is a great way to force guys to know each other as people, not numbers. Remember, they’re building a team, a family.

Of course, we all knew BO’B was fiery, right?