What the Vikings and the NFL have done is legitimize child abuse

[cali]

they're sending a big honking message that what AP did to his sons isn't really abuse; it's discipline. hey, he may have gone a little overboard accidentally, but his intent was good. AP is a loving daddy and he wants to raise respectful children. He says that it was similar discipline that was instrumental to his success and that kept him from being a street punk.

By justifying this shit, the NFL is sending a message to its millions of viewers- and its one that will do real damage.

Amy Davidson wrote a great piece in The New Yorker:

Adrian Peterson’s Intent

<snip>

The N.F.L. has a personal-conduct policy that was recently updated with supposedly stiffer penalties for domestic violence. When asking whether Adrian Peterson should be allowed to play, it’s worth looking first at the violence he’s openly acknowledged. Peterson’s lawyer said Friday that “Adrian has never hidden from what happened,” as though abusers only operate in dark, furtive places—as though they never brag. What Peterson has acknowledged doing is bad enough. His defense, basically, is that he is a child beater, not a child abuser. In a statement Monday, Peterson, after mentioning that his earlier interviews—notable to the police for their lack of remorse—had been made “without an attorney,” said, “I want everyone to understand how sorry I feel about the hurt I have brought to my child.”

I never imagined being in a position where the world is judging my parenting skills or calling me a child abuser because of the discipline I administered to my son.… I am not a perfect son. I am not a perfect husband. I am not a perfect parent, but I am, without a doubt, not a child abuser. I am someone that disciplined his child and did not intend to cause him any injury.

How, one wonders, could whipping a child with a switch reflect an intent not to cause him “any injury”? Peterson said, “My goal is always to teach my son right from wrong and that’s what I tried to do that day.” It was “discipline.” Peterson was going to improve his son. He was going to make him his idea of good. It just might hurt. How many children have heard a line like that in the moment before a grown-up hit them hard? A statement of this “goal”—you are bad, it is your fault, you made me do this—may be more the rule than the exception. Maybe it’s a seat in front of a video game. Maybe it’s taking an extra container of yogurt from the refrigerator.

Peterson, his lawyer, and his supporters have tried to frame this as a cultural question: To spank or not to spank? They’ve had a certain amount of success. Charles Barkley, the former basketball player, defended Peterson on CBS this past weekend by saying, “Every black parent in the South is going to be in jail under those circumstances.” (The next day, he added, “A lot of my friends who are white and Italian sent me a last night saying, ‘I don’t know why you’re making this a black thing. Our parents spanked the hell out of us, too.’”) When it was suggested to Barkley that there was something else going on—that the boy’s wounds might not be what even he would call normal—he said, “And I think Adrian said ‘I went overboard.’ But as far as being from the South, we all spanked our kids.” (As it happens, Peterson, in a text to the boy’s mother, said, “Never do I go overboard! But all my kids will know, hey daddy has the biggie heart but don’t play no games when it comes to acting right.”)

<snip>

http://www.newyorker.com/news/amy-davidson/adrian-petersons-intent

[joeybee12]

1. I was spanked as a child, it was common back then, but still I was never beaten...

it's not a cultural thing, it's knowing right from wrong, and Peterson does not.

[Brickbat]

2. The Vikes have lost a large sponsor, Radisson Hotels, and the MN governor has called for

Peterson's suspension. A former Vikings star, Cris Carter, called Peterson out on TV. Here's hoping more voices are added.

[Skidmore]

3. Parents and caregivers need to push back

Flush Rush had an effect. Perhaps there are other pastimes to be found other than football this season. How about Scrabble or bingo parties or your own game in the back yard with friends.

[dilby]

4. Adrian will be punished after the legal procedures and will be suspended.

Unless he is found innocent then there will probably not be any punishment. But I think everyone deserves their day in court and should be treated innocent till proven guilty. What he did was horrendous and he will pay the consequences for those actions. You really can't blame the Vikings they are protecting themselves from the lawsuits that would certainly take place by suspending him before he has had his day in court.

[trumad]

5. NFL has full discretion in situations like this ....

[dilby]

6. They do and they certainly can be sued.

The Players Union would not sit by and let a person who has not been convicted of a crime be suspended. After the legal proceedings he will be suspended.

[trumad]

8. A team can deactivate a player with Pay anytime they want.

Plus the NFL can suspend a player if they feel he violated the NFL personal conduct policy.

In other words---there are ways to make this happen.

[Lurker Deluxe]

9. So Ray Rice

Ray Rice was not even charged with a crime ... and he has been banished.

I hear the players union is going to pursue this through the courts, but how do you ban one player and not even suspend the other?

The NFL has said nothing on any kind of suspension, it was the team.

[trumad]

11. Uhh actually he was charged.

[LittleBlue]

7. Corporal punishment is widely accepted by America

The NFL and the Vikings have hardly legitimized anything that wasn't already widely accepted

Four in Five Americans Believe Parents Spanking Their Children is Sometimes Appropriate

Almost nine in ten U.S. adults were spanked as a child; two-thirds of parents have spanked their child

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/newsroom/harrispolls/tabid/447/ctl/readcustom%20default/mid/1508/articleid/1283/default.aspx

I find it utterly bizarre that any common bad behavior, once committed by an NFL player, is suddenly the NFL's fault.

[trumad]

10. Widely accepted...

Let's make a poll with pictures of ripped Scrotums, and flesh.

Let's see how widely accepted it is after that.

[LittleBlue]

12. Go ahead

Show people the abuse. It should be shown. But don't pretend the NFL's length of suspension (whatever it turns out to be if Peterson is convicted) changes anyone's mind on child abuse.

[Comrade Grumpy]

13. It is an opportunity to bash the NFL, a favorite past time of some here.

[cali]

14. right. this is about bashing the NFL. Uh, no. It's about child abuse

[Johonny]

15. The point of football teams is to win football games

The owner judged that losing football games would cost him more money than playing a player that clearly has admitted to what many consider child abuse. It is unclear if the owner is totally wrong on this gamble. So far a small amount of money has walked away in sponsorship. Traditionally winning is a key statistic that tracks revenue. There is a reason Al Davis said "Just Win Baby". If you feel strongly about this issue then I encourage you not to watch, buy products, and keep pressing others not to either. Until you hurt the Viking franchise's bottom line there is some validity to the argument that winning football games is the teams actual business and not up holding the moral code of America. The NFL is not the criminal justice system. You don't need to be a saint to run around on a football field. I personally don't understand the decision to take only a one game stand on this issue by the Vikings but it is an interesting gamble on their part. Many consider it a rather dumb gamble because even with AP they aren't a shoe in for a play off spot. Losing and appearing to be a moral loser at the same time has to be a really, really bad business decision. One I doubt even Al Davis would have made.