When Does Right Get To Step In?

Well, this is blog #2.  If you read the first one, I know it was your typical introductory material.  Anyways, right before I left work today I heard the verdict of Adrian Peterson's child abuse charges and I don't get it.  I am a homer living in Minnesota who is a die hard Minnesota Vikings fan and I struggle with the message in today's verdict.  I know that the legal system allows plea deals in exchange for an admission of guilt, or in this case a plea of no contest, but the sentence was knocked down to a point where Adrian Peterson is going to start sleeping good again after today.  First of all Adrian Peterson has been getting paid for the past eight weeks while he was placed on the commissioner's exempt list.  So, for the past eight weeks he has been getting paid approximately $700,000 a week for being sent home for poor choices that he made.  His punishment for the child abuse charges against his own son resulted in 80 hours of community service, no jail time, and a fine of $4,000.  Four thousand dollars would be a big problem for me, who works in the education field as a paraprofessional.  For an athlete, they probably pull out of their pocket and pay it.  The loser in all this is his son who suffered a torn scrotum as a result of his punishment choices.  That child has live with the trauma for the rest of his life because his father couldn't control his anger at that time.  I hope the NFL does the right thing and suspends him for at least the rest of the year without pay.  I also hope they don't honor his time that he has already sat out because he was still being paid.  I make bad choices and I lose my job, I don't get paid to wait and see how it plays out.  As a Minnesota Vikings fan, I think Adrian Peterson has a hell of a lot of talent and may be the best running back in the game today.  It is too bad that he made the choice to throw that talent away because he felt he was untouchable and had to display his feeling of power in the manner he did to his own son.  I know that culture was brought into play in trying to explain his actions, but in what culture is it tolerated to abuse people, especially one of your own and a product of you.  I hope the Minnesota Vikings do the right thing and do not have Adrian Peterson dress in a Vikings uniform again.  What every athlete needs to remember is that no matter how skilled you are and how much money you can make, everyone is replaceable.  Our Vikings have had a struggle this season with a number of issues, but we have won the last two games, have a near .500 record, and we have one of the best defenses in the league.  We have done fine without you Mr. Peterson and I hope that you have to now go out and earn everybody's respect back.  Remember it takes a lot longer to earn the trust back than it takes to lose it.

In closing today, I voted.  I am not going to go into who should vote for who, because it is not my place.  I just hope that everyone who was eligible to vote took advantage of their freedom to do so.  I leave you tonight with the thought that you can't complain about our leaders at any level if you don't vote.

#choices