The Green Bay Packers have been the center of the NFL media storm for almost 8 months now. From the off-season drama to the overreaction on Aaron Rodgers COVID situation the narratives have been set in motion. Now Bill Simmons is suggesting that those narratives could cost Rodgers a rightfully deserved MVP award.
On Thursday’s episode of his popular Bill Simmons podcast Simmons responded to the current MVP race in an almost flabbergasted manner:
“The actual MVP through 11 games, Aaron Rodgers is +650, so there’s some weird off-the-field stuff drifting into this. It’s like, ‘You were a d*ck in the offseason, you were a diva,’ and then the COVID and he misses a week and now it’s like so are we saying Aaron Rodgers isn’t allowed to win the MVP this year? Because if we’re doing the odds correctly, he is the odds-on favorite and it’s probably not close. Packers are 9-3. They’ve had injuries every week, including Rodgers missed a week. We saw what happened when the backup went in — it was a catastrophe. It’s like how is anyone more valuable to their team than Aaron Rodgers has been to the Packers this year? But now you bring in all the baggage and that’s why he’s +650. And that’s why Tom Brady is 3-to-1.”
Peter Schrager, a host for Good Morning Football on the NFL Network and a regular on Simmons podcast, agreed that off-the-field issues might play into the award for Rodgers:
“There’s been no one as good as Rodgers when he’s on the field. Objectively, he’s the winner of the MVP right now. If this was an objective award that was given out by looking at a piece of paper and statisticians pump out some robotic answer, sure. If this was done by a process where FanDuel selects the MVP based on wins over whatever it is, fine. But there’s a reason TO waited five years to get into the Hall of Fame. There’s a reason why Roger Clemens is not in the Hall of Fame. Human beings vote on these things, and the sportswriter community might not be inclined to say, ‘Let’s wrap our arms around Rodgers after what went down, with that whole thing with the vaccine. I’m curious to see if sportswriters can block it all out and say, ‘Is he the best teammate? Is he the best leader? Is he the best player in the NFL? I think the answer might be yes, but they might be looking for a different answer and a different player to wrap their arms around and see this award go to someone else this season.”
Unfortunately Schrager and Simmons are probably on to something here. More and more these days media narratives seem to control public opinion about the league and the players in it. For Rodgers and the Packers sake, let’s hope the voters come to their senses and number 12 ends this season with his second consecutive MVP award.
