Regardless of which side of the aisle you're currently on regarding this whole Adrian Peterson child abuse mess, I think we all can agree this dumpster fire would have continued to rage out of control until the Vikings or the National Football League took control of the situation.

That finally happened early Wednesday morning when the Vikings organization did the right thing by admitting they made a mistake reinstating Peterson. This was no doubt brought on by the realization that corporate sponsors were not only starting to bail from the Peterson camp, but they were threatening to end relationships with the Viking organization and the NFL itself, unless some sort of disciplinary action was taken against the player.

After all, you know you have BIG problems when you have the governor and a senator from the state your team plays in asking for a player's immediate suspension. That's a pretty good indicator things aren't going to get better anytime soon.

If you somehow missed the news, Adrian Peterson has been put on the NFL's Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission list. Meaning he'll take a voluntary leave with pay to take care of his personal and legal issues, resulting from his indictment on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child.

Peterson will have his day in court and will be gone from the team until all his legal issues have been resolved.  Chances are he will more than likely plead guilty to the current charge or a lesser offense in order to put this whole situation behind him and to return to the NFL.

Once the legal system levies its punishment on Peterson, then it will be the NFL's turn to tackle him with some sort of suspension under the leagues personal-conduct policy.

Then maybe Peterson will get to resume toting the rock once again.

Until then, Peterson is in limbo. And both Peterson and the Vikings are going to be in the crosshairs of a number of special interest groups, fans and members of the media as they start to pile on with criticism, jokes, and cheap shots.

That started on Tuesday when the "New York Times" unearthed this little tidbit of information. They recently crunched the data on NFL player arrests over the past 15 years. Guess who has the most names on the police blotter? Yep, the Minnesota Vikings!

The Minnesota Vikings have had 44 players arrested, cited or charged since 2000. That's the most in the entire NFL.

The Cincinnati Bengals run a close second with 43, followed by the Denver Broncos with 40 players.

In fairness to the Vikings, the "Times" did note that the data is imperfect, since it's only based on incidents that were seen reported in the press.

The most common arrests by the way, were for driving under the influence, then assault and battery, followed by domestic violence and sexual assault.

It would do us all good to remember these pro athletes that we tend to put on pedestals and admire so much are no better than the rest of us.

Like us, they too are prone to the very same character flaws and mistakes the rest of us make in our everyday lives.

While I personally deplore the acts that Peterson, Rice, and others in the NFL have allegedly committed recently, we need to remind ourselves that no man is perfect.

Let's just hope and pray all these men in question get the proper guidance and help needed to ensure these despicable types of acts don't continue to happen in the future.

After all, when it comes right down to it, none of this is about football. It's about abuse to women and children. Let's not lose sight of that.

 

 

 

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