AP drops NFL MVP voter who refused to vote for Aaron Rodgers due to vaccine status: report

The Associated Press has let go the NFL MVP voter who refused to cast his ballot for Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers last season due in part to the veteran signal caller refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, OutKick says. 

Hub Arkush, who has long been a publisher for Pro Football Weekly, won’t be voting on the NFL MVP any longer. He called Rodgers “a jerk” after it was learned that Rodgers didn’t take the vaccine despite saying he was “immunized” last season. 

While new faces will join the AP list of voters due to some deaths and retirements, Arkush is said to have violated the voting rules by revealing who he would vote for prior to casting the ballot, OutKick learned. 

“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 670 The Score in Chicago in January prior to his vote refusal. “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.”

With a total of 50 voters, 39 went to Rodgers to win his fourth career MVP Award. Brady received 10 votes while Kupp had one. 

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But in the moment of that interview, Arkush knew that he was walking a tightrope by revealing who he wouldn’t be voting for despite recognizing that Rodgers was likely to win the award. 

“But one of the ways we get to keep being voters is we’re not allowed to say who we are voting for until after the award has been announced. I’m probably pushing the envelope by saying who I’m not voting for,” he said. 

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Rodgers would throw for 4,115 yards, 37 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 16 games with the Packers, who went 13-4 that season. Rodgers would eventually fall to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs, as he couldn’t weather the storm in Green Bay. 

The Packers had gone 8-0 at home in the regular season.