Aaron Rodgers fired back at Hub Arkush, the MVP voter who said he wouldn’t vote for the Packers quarterback — the current frontrunner for the award – because he is the “biggest jerk in the league.”
“I think he’s a bum,” Rodgers told reporters Wednesday. “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.
“I listened to his 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.”
Rodgers went on to say that Arkush wants the MVP to add an extra letter to the acronym.
“His problem isn’t with me being a bad guy or the biggest jerk in the league — because he doesn’t know me,” Rodgers said. “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.
“If he wants to go on a crusade, and collude, and come up with an extra letter to put on the award just for the season and make it the Most Valuable Vaccinated Player, then he should do that. But, he’s a bum and I’m not gonna waste any time worrying about that stuff … It’s surprising that he would say that. I knew this was possible. I talked about it on (The Pat McAfee Show) weeks ago. But, crazy.”
Arkush made the comments while appearing on “The Parkins & Spiegel Show” on 670 The Score in Chicago Tuesday, laying out his reasoning for why he wouldn’t vote for Rodgers.
“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,” he 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.”
Arkush, a longtime analyst for the Packers’ rival Chicago Bears, appeared on The Score again on Wednesday, explaining that he made a “big mistake” bringing up his aversion to voting for Rodgers.
Arkush said his error, however, was not his underlying opinion of Rodgers, but the fact that he was not supposed to share specifics about his voting until after the award has been handed out.
“I made a big mistake last night,” he said. “It doesn’t really have much to do with Aaron Rodgers. Being one of the 50 selectors in the AP poll is a real honor and privilege, and I was pleasantly surprised when they asked me to join. The only thing they really ask us is not to tell people who we voted for until the award is presented — and what they really mean is just don’t talk about it.
“The reason is exactly what happened here. The thing I feel really awful about is most of the other 49 presenters are acquaintances. A lot of them are friends. I’ve now put them in an unfortunate position where they have to be asked about it. They may have to choose to talk about or defend it. That’s just wrong and I feel awful about it. I really wish it hadn’t happened.”
Arkush was not going to re-address the substance of his comments about Rodgers, though he did say that he didn’t communicate his opinion very well.
“Beyond that the only thing I can do going forward is respect what I failed to respect last night and just not talk about it anymore until after the awards have been given,” he said. “I don’t know if they make public who votes for who or not, but I’ll be happy to talk about it.
“As far as what happened last night, it’s on me. I screwed up. I haven’t paid a lot of attention to [the backlash]. I don’t spend much time on Twitter. A lot of it is being presented in ways that it wasn’t said, but that’s gonna happen. I do know that some of it sounds awful because I didn’t say very well what I wanted to say. All you can do is own it and I own it.”
Rodgers spent last offseason unhappy with his situation in Green Bay, but returned because it was clear the organization would not trade him, and he did not want to retire. The Packers compromised by chopping the final year off his contract, meaning he is set to be a free agent after next season.
Rodgers also missed a game this season after contracting COVID-19 while unvaccinated; he had misled the media in the offseason in saying that he was “immunized”.
Despite the controversies, Rodgers, who was named MVP last season, has played about as well as he ever has, and the Packers have clinched a first round bye in the NFC.
