West Coast TV Viewers Won't See Aaron Rodgers Win MVP Live

Former Cal star is expected to get top NFL award on Thursday, and it will be televised live on network TV in the East, but not in the West

Former Cal quarterback Aaron Rodgers is likely to become just the second player to win the NFL MVP award more than three times when the presentation is made Thursday night, but folks watching TV in Rodgers’ hometown of Chico or those hanging around his alma mater won’t be able to see it live unless they pay for a premium channel.

Thursday’s NFL awards show, in which more than a dozen individual awards for the 2021 NFL season will be announced, will be televised live on ABC, starting at 9 p.m. Eastern time. It will also be shown on ESPN-plus and the NFL Network, which most people have to pay for.

You will note that the starting time is presented as it relates to the Eastern time zone. One reason is that West Coast ABC stations will show the NFL honors show on tape delay starting at 9 p.m. Pacific time.

So while folks in the East are getting the start of the NFL Honors program, folks in Seattle and Los Angeles and San Francisco will get local news at 6 p.m. Pacific, which is 9 p.m. Eastern time. The local news is followed on the West Coast by national news, then Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, and just about the time the MVP winner is announced, ABC in the West will be showing the Jeopardy! Collegiate Championships.

Rodgers would like to be hosting Jeopardy!, but I assume he’s probably not too keen on the idea that folks in the area where he grew up will see Jeopardy! rather than him winning his fourth MVP award.

They will be able to see it live if they subscribe to ESPN-plus or the NFL Network, but viewers in most places must pay for those services.

There will be ways to find out, of course, as the news will be presented at a number of sites, rendering the NFL Honors broadcast that begins at 9 p.m. in the West virtually useless.

There is an outside possibility that Rodgers will not win the MVP award. He and Tom Brady are considered the two favorites, and whichever one wins will become the second player to win the MVP award at least four times (Peyton Manning won it five times).

One of the 50 AP MVP voters, Hub Arkush, has said he won’t vote for Rodgers because he did not like some of Rodgers’ off-field behavior and comments during the offseason and during the season.

Nonetheless, all the betting sites make Rodgers the heavy favorite to win the MVP for a second straight year.

The consensus, as noted on bettingpros.com, puts Rodgers’ odds of winning the MVP at -500, which is 1-to-5, while Brady is the second favorite at +600, or 6-to-1.

Rodgers’ mediocre performance in the Packers’ first-round playoff loss to San Francisco is not a factor since MVP voting ended before the postseason began.

So Rodgers is expected to win – even if folks on the West Coast won’t see it happen.

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Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Cary Edmondson, USA TODAY Sports

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Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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