The NFL has had an outbreak of criminal issues recently, from Ray Rice knocking out his fiance and now wife in a hotel elevator to Greg Hardy’s vicious attack on his girlfriend that included threatening to kill her and many more cases in between. The latest incident involving a 6-foot-1, 217 pound hulk of a man versus a four-year-old child is just as ugly as the rest. 

Adrian Peterson has admitted in his own words that he “whooped” his son with a switch. A switch is a thin, flexible stick that acts like a whip when one decides a child is in need of corporal punishment. As seen in police photos, there were visible cuts and red marks to the child’s groin area after he was “whooped.”  

In a statement released after Peterson was indicted on child abuse charges, he states he never intended to harm his son, as if a massive professional athlete swinging a stick at a toddler would not cause any harm. He continues with an even more absurd notion. 

“I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate,” he said.

Peterson is essentially admitting he needed a professional physician to tell him not to lash his son in the groin with a stick. The running back’s half-hearted effort at explaining himself was incredibly unconvincing. 

This case, like the incidents involving the Rice and Hardy cases, is totally inexcusable. It should not be tolerated behavior from anyone, especially someone who is constantly in the public light playing the country’s most popular game. 

And leave it to the country’s most popular game to totally botch the punishment, or lack thereof, of Peterson and his peers. In fact, as of right now Peterson has not been punished at all by the league or their incompetent ruler, Rodger Goodell, but only by the Vikings. And that punishment took comments from the Governor of Minnesota and sponsors leaving the team for the Vikings to place Peterson on the league’s exempt list. 

The Vikings have a history of cutting players for getting in trouble with the law for committing lesser, similar crimes to Peterson’s. The only difference is they are not franchise players like Peterson. So he will not be cut, simple as that. Once again, in the NFL it’s business over integrity. 

No child turns out better because of corporal punishment; they turn out OK in spite of it.

Adrian Peterson clearly did not turn out better because he was administered corporal punishment as a child. After all, he still beats his kids. Peterson is a father whose main focus 12 months out of the year is playing a game, a father that does not know how to properly parent his child and took the easy way out by beating him. He crossed the line parenting and should not be crossing more lines on a football field anytime soon.