Possible Child Abuse Adrian Peterson

Just saw this on the news.

www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/viking...n-peterson/15528479/

I recall growing up and getting in trouble for not doing what I was told to do and/or doing things I knew I wasn't allowed to do. My dad had a razor strap that he split vertically in half, one half was kept in the garage and the other half was kept in the barn. I recall a few episodes of being told to fetch "the strap" and it kept me and my brothers and sisters in line - three strokes was the maximum penalty the old man would ever hand out but three strokes was two too many. Every punishment was preceded by the "why you are being punished" speech (which I found out much later was to allow Dad to settle his anger and not kill any of us kids), the whipping, and the summary - "I told you not to do it, you did it anyhow, you have been punished, and you will be assigned additional punishments as your Mother and I see fit in the form of additional chores and other tasks as we deem appropriate. Now, pull up your pants and collect yourself, you have work to do." I can't recall ever being in trouble before I was six and even then I don't think I ever had to "fetch the strap" until I was almost ten - that time I had it coming and I got what I had coming to me.

Maybe that variety of corporal punishment was appropriate for my generation or maybe I am just covering for my own family's barbaric treatment of children way back when. That being said, laying into a four year old child to the point that the result was open wounds and bruises up and down the child's back and thighs is going too far, any rational adult knows that. AP, if there is any truth in the news reports your man card has been revoked, you are nothing more than a thug and lower than whale sh**!

Then there's the child's mother who failed to protect him from her boyfriend who killed the same child at a later date. Parents are supposed to care for their children and nurture them into the mentally healthy, responsible adults to the full potential that each child can achieve. I fear that this is one more sad comment on the status of our current society. It's a sad day for America.

How is the going to CYA on this one? Pun intended.

I can't imagine using a switch, or a belt, or anything other than an open hand on the bottom, on a 4 year old regardless of what they had done. And even at that, one or two swats should prove sufficient to get the child's attention regarding their behavior.

Was deactivating Peterson for one game sufficient action on the part of the Vikings? They suspended another player, albeit with pay, for the rest of the season a few years back after that player was arrested on domestic violence charges. I can't imagine that assaulting a child, even your own child, could be seen as a lesser digression than that.

See what Charles Barkley had to say about this? Something to the effect of every southern black family whacks their children with switches.

I got my butt smacked with an open hand but that was the worst of it.

Let's just say my own disciplinary history as a child went beyond an open hand on the posterior but stopped well short of what Peterson did to his boy even when I was much older than this child was.

Suspend him, without pay, for as long as the rules allow if you still want him on the team. I, for one, wouldn't want him as my teammate anymore than I'd want Rice or Vick as teammates.

As far as I'm concerned the bare minimum suspension for being arrested for anything should be one entire season starting with the first game after you are arrested. And yes, that is what I meant. If you are arrested you get suspended. Upon conviction, if you are convicted, there could be further suspensions in your future, but the mere fact that you were arrested at all gives you a one year vacation from the game without pay. That should apply across the board in every professional sport.

Innocent before being proven guilty? Thought you more than most would be against corporate lynch mobs.

FredHayek wrote: Innocent before being proven guilty? Thought you more than most would be against corporate lynch mobs.

Couldn't find the "yea that".

Being arrested has no bearing on guilt or innocence, that's what trials are for. Arrested is a binary state - either you were or were not.

Whether or not Peterson is guilty of abusing his child, whether or not Rice is guilty of domestic violence has no bearing on whether or not they were arrested, nor does it have any bearing on the negative publicity they have generated for both their teams and the entire league. That is what the suspension is for, behavior which places the team and the league in an unfavorable light and generating negative publicity for both and neither of those has a thing to do with guilt or innocence.