Liev Schreiber addresses elephant in the room with NFL star Aaron Rodgers in historic Hard Knocks episode

Sports documentary Hard Knocks aired a historic episode as the voice of the series finally showed up on screen.

The HBO series began in 2001, with each outing following a different NFL team as it trains for the forthcoming season.

On Tuesday (8 August), the 20th season began, making the second time the New York Jets have been the focus.

In the past, players have expressed their distaste at having to take part in the series, which is narrated by actor Liev Schreiber. In 2013, five teams – San Francisco 49ers, Atlanta Falcons, Seattle Seahawks, Houston Texans and Washington Redskins – declined to participate.

This led to the NFL creating a list of rules that could force a team to be on the show should there be no volunteers. New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers claimed in July that NFL and HBO bosses “forced” the documentary “down our throat”, adding: “We have to deal with it.”

Rodgers was asked about NFL players’ hesitation at taking part in the show when its long-time narrator Schreiber made his first ever on-screen appearance to attend a practice.

As Schreiber was shown to arrive via helicopter in the season 20 premiere episode, he narrated: “Full disclosure: I wanted to drive, but the producers thought a helicopter might be more dramatic.”

Rogers, who recently told KPIX-TV “the only thing I like about Hard Knocks is the voice of God who narrates it,” was asked head-on by Schreiber about the show’s bad reputation among players.

“So tell me, how come nobody wants to do the show?” he asked, to which Rodgers replied: “People are worried about it being a distraction.”

However, walking back his original comments slightly, he added: “There’s a lot of misnomers about it. I’ve had a great experience.”

Schreiber has narrated every season bar the seventh, when Hollywood actor Paul Rudd temporarily replaced him.

New York Jets last appeared on Hard Knocks in 2010.