Green Bay Packers quarterback, proudly unvaccinated, gathered the NFL’s Most Valuable Player award Thursday night. He was the fifth player in the NFL’s history to repeat a back-to-back annual award, and now has four MVP’s total. Only Peyton Manning has won five.
Despite misleading the public on his vaccination status earlier in the season, Rodgers earned 39 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the NFL. Tom Brady received 10 votes, and Cooper Kupp received one vote.
In a news conference following the awards, Rodgers said he would decide his 2022 path “in the near future, and I’m not gonna keep a lot of people waiting.”
ESPN noted that Rodgers appeared to downplay the idea of playing for another team when he corrected himself after first mentioning what the best “place” for him would be.
“The best decision for me moving forward — not really place — more just what does it feel like to commit to a season if that’s what I want to do? The good thing is I still feel like my body is in a good place.”
“I think there’s a lot to build on there, whether I’m there or not,” Rodgers said. “I think they’ve got a really good nucleus in place. Should I come back, there’s some things that need to get done, probably, to get the team where it needs to go. Should I feel like it’s my time to move on and do something else, I’ll be extremely eternally grateful for the Green Bay Packers organization, the fan base and all the incredible 17 years’ worth of memories and friendships and special, special moments that I’ve gotten to share with members of the organization, my teammates, people that work there and the fans, as well. I’m just super-thankful for every single moment in the journey.”
Cooper Kupp was named Offensive Player of the Year, and T.J. Watt was named Defensive Player of the Year.