Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers called one of the voters for the National Football League's most valuable player award "a bum" because he vowed to not vote for Rodgers to his anti-vaccine opinion.
"I think he's a bum," Rodgers said of MVP voter Hub Arkush, the editor of ChicagoFootball.com, The Hill reported 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."
Arkush is one of 50 voters chosen by the Associated Press to cast a vote for who they believe was the best regular-season player in the league, according to the Sportscasting.com.
Arkush appeared Tuesday on the Chicago radio 670's "The Score" show and said he would not give Rodgers his vote because Rodgers refuses to get the vaccine, while admitting he was one of the best players on the field.
"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 told the hosts. "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."
Rodgers has been outspoken against the vaccination in interviews.
"I didn't lie in the initial press conference," Rodgers said in a Nov. 5 interview with Sports Illustrated. "During that time, it was a witch-hunt that was going on across the league. My plan was to say that I've been immunized. It wasn't some sort of ruse or lie; it was the truth."
Rodgers tested positive for the virus in November and recovered but has been taking his own "long-term immunization protocol," according to the report.
"I'm not an anti-vaxx, flat-earther," Rodgers said in an interview from early November. "I have an allergy to an ingredient that's in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long-term immunization protocol to protect myself, and I'm very proud of the research that went into that."
Rodgers has won the NFL MVP award three times before, which is generally given to quarterbacks in the league. Only Peyton Manning has won more NFL MVP awards.
"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," the star quarterback said this week. "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."
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