Packer Central

‘Jerk’ Rodgers Takes Aim at ‘Bum’ Arkush

MVP voter Hub Arkush called Aaron Rodgers a jerk on Tuesday. Here's Aaron Rodgers' response on Wednesday.

Bill Huber

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Hub Arkush, the longtime editor of Pro Football Weekly and one of 50 voters for The Associated Press’ end-of-season NFL awards, called Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers “the biggest jerk in the league” in saying why he would not cast an MVP vote for Rodgers.

Rodgers response?

“I think he’s a bum. I think he’s an absolute bum,” Rodgers said after Wednesday’s practice. “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 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.”

Rodgers surmised that Arkush’s anger didn’t start in the offseason, when the quarterback was in the middle of a standoff with the franchise. Rather, he believes Arkush’s bitterness derives from Rodgers’ status and stance on vaccinations.

“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 me. 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,” 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.

Arkush made his comments on 670 The Score in Chicago. Returning to that station on Wednesday, he acknowledged he “made a big mistake.” The mistake wasn’t his take on Rodgers, though. It was for making public his take on Rodgers.

“I just think that the way he’s carried himself is inappropriate,” Arkush said on Tuesday. “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.”

In Arkush’s mind, Rodgers “hurt the team” by how he acted off the field.

Green Bay is a league-best 13-3 and has earned homefield advantage.

“He’s a bum and I’m not going to waste any time worrying about that stuff,” Rodgers said. “He has no idea who I am. He’s never talked to me in his life. It’s surprising that he would even say that, to be honest. I knew this was possible – talked about it on (The Pat) McAfee (Show) weeks ago. Crazy.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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