UPDATED 1/5, 4:05 p.m. ET: Aaron Rodgers responded to Hub Arkush’s comments during his media availability on Wednesday.
“I think he’s a bum. I think he’s an absolute bum. He doesn’t know me. I don’t know who he is. No one knew who he was, probably, until yesterday’s comments,” Rodgers said. “I listened to the comments, but to say he had his mind made up in the summertime, in the offseason that I had zero chance of winning MVP, in my opinion, should exclude future votes. His problem isn’t with me being a bad guy or the biggest jerk in the league, because he doesn’t know me...he doesn’t know anything about me, I’ve never met him. I’ve never had lunch with him. I’ve never had an interview with him. His problem is I’m not vaccinated.”
Rodgers continued, “So if he wants to go on a crusade and collude and come up with an extra letter to put on the award, just for this season, and make it the ‘Most Valuable Vaccinated Player,’ then he should do that. He’s a bum and I’m going to waste any time worrying about that stuff. He doesn’t know what I do, who I am. He’s never talked to me in his life, but it’s unfortunate that those sentiments...it’s surprising that he would even say that, to be honest.”
See original story below.
NFLMVP voter and sportswriter Hub Arkush went off on Green Bay Packers player Aaron Rodgers during a chat on Chicago’s 670 The Score, calling the 38-year-old quarterback a “jerk” and “bad guy.”
“I don’t think you can be the biggest jerk in the league and punish your team, and your organization and your fan base the way he did and be the Most Valuable Player,” Arkush said, as reported by ProFootballTalk’s Michael David Smith. “Has he been the most valuable on the field? Yeah, you could make that argument, but I don’t think he is clearly that much more valuable than Jonathan Taylor or Cooper Kupp or maybe even Tom Brady. So from where I sit, the rest of it is why he’s not gonna be my choice. Do I think he’s gonna win it? Probably. A lot of voters don’t approach it the way I do, but others do, who I’ve spoken to. But one of the ways we get to keep being voters is we’re not allowed to say who we are voting for until after the award has been announced. I’m probably pushing the envelope by saying who I’m not voting for.”
Arkush, who is one of the 50 people that the Associated Press allows to vote for the NFL MVP, added that he doesn’t “think that the way” Rodgers “carried himself is inappropriate.” He continued, “I think he’s a bad guy, and I don’t think a bad guy can be the most valuable guy at the same time.”
Late last year, Rodgers was hit with criticism after he said he was “immunized” against COVID-19 despite not being vaccinated against the disease, which has claimed the lives of over 800,000 people in the U.S. and sickened millions more. After contracting COVID, Rodgers was a guest on Pat McAfee Show, where he brought up Martin Luther King Jr. while talking about the pandemic and said he got medical advice from Joe Rogan, who is of course not a doctor.
If Rodgers does in fact win the NFL MVP award, it will be his fourth. That’ll make him only the second player in NFL history to win four or more times. The other would be Peyton Manning, who won the award a total of five times. Jim Brown, Johnny Unitas, Brett Favre, and Tom Brady have won it three times while Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Kurt Warner have won it twice.
The 2021 NFL MVP is set to be announced next month on Saturday, Feb. 12, just a day before Super Bowl LVI will kick off.
