‘He’s an absolute bum’: Aaron Rodgers responds to NFL MVP voter withholding vote over vaccination status

'He's an absolute bum': Aaron Rodgers responds to NFL MVP voter withholding vote over vaccination status

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Even amid the controversy he has stirred up this year, Aaron Rodgers seems in line to win the fourth NFL MVP of his career.

But if Rodgers does win, he won’t be a unanimous selection. One of the award’s voters — Hub Arkush, who covers the Bears — conceded that, while Rodgers has been valuable on the field, the Packers quarterback’s off-field fiascos will keep him from garnering his vote. Arkush even went so far as to call Rodgers “the biggest jerk in the league.”

MORE: NFL MVP voter calls Rodgers ‘biggest jerk in the league,’ won’t vote for him

“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.

“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.”

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Rodgers caught wind of this on Wednesday, and was asked about Arkush’s comments directly, at which point Rodgers proceeded to call out Arkush for his decision. He didn’t hold back in doing so:

“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.

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Notably, Rodgers took issue with Arkush’s characterization of the former as “the biggest jerk in the league” or being “a bad guy,” professing multiple times that the two have never met in any capacity.

Rodgers also felt Arkush’s decision had more to do with his vaccination status than anything else.

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“I listened to the comments.. His problem isn’t with me being a bad guy or being the biggest jerk in the league, because he doesn’t know me and doesn’t know anything about me,” Rodgers said. “His problem is I’m not vaccinated. 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.”

Rodgers this season is completing 68.6 percent of his passes while throwing for 3,977 yards to go along with 35 touchdowns and four interceptions. FanDuel lists Rodgers as an overwhelming -400 favorite to win NFL MVP. Per FanDuel, second-place Tom Brady comes in at +550, Jonathan Taylor at +1400, Joe Burrow at +2000 and Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Cooper Kupp all at +4000.


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