The NFL is in the midst of several unfortunate scandals. After the Ray Rice situation and the backlash the league received, it is now dealing with a new scandal involving Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson.
If you haven’t heard by now, Peterson was indicted on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child after intensely “disciplining” his 4-year-old son by hitting him with a tree branch.
The Vikings deactivated Peterson for their game against the New England Patriots but made a statement on Monday declaring that Peterson will play in the team’s next game against the New Orleans Saints.
The Vikings said the decision to reinstate Peterson was not made by the NFL and was the sole decision of the Vikings organization.
Even if the NFL did not have a direct impact on the decision, the league could have stepped in and made an executive decision to override the team's decision. This situation is not to be taken lightly, and the NFL should have given Peterson a longer suspension until the truth of the situation came to light.
To make matters worse, early Tuesday morning more accusations came out against Peterson, claiming he abused another one of his sons over a year ago. Pictures and text messages between Peterson and the mother of the child were brought to the media's attention.
In these text messages, the woman asks what happened to her son's head and Peterson admits to "disciplining" him.
There is a huge difference between disciplining your child and abusing him, and Peterson crossed the line in these situations. He took his discipline techniques too far and caused serious injury to two of his children.
Plenty of people are spanked as children, but those spankings do not result in deliberate wounds. There is absolutely no excuse or reason to make your child bleed after being disciplined. That is not what discipline means, nor should it ever be acceptable.
The Vikings, it seems, were afraid to lose their star player, and the NFL was afraid to interfere in yet another scandalous situation.
The NFL will continue to upset loyal fans if it continues to make decisions like this. Rather than intervene and set a positive example, the league office remained on the sidelines and allowed the team to decide Peterson's fate.
For not acting, the league should shoulder some of the blame for the fact that the decision Minnesota made was wrong.
Hopefully, by the time the next scandal rolls around (and it seems like that may be sooner, rather than later), someone in the league office will step up and make a better judgment regarding the fate of these athletes who choose to make poor decisions.
Reach the reporter at Megan.Kavy@asu.edu or follow her on twitter @meggiekavy
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