The National Football League has suspended Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson without pay for at least the rest of the season, the league announced on Tuesday.
The league said Peterson had violated its personal conduct policy for “abusive discipline he inflicted on his four-year-old son last May”. Peterson would not be eligible for reinstatement until at least 15 April. The NFL Players Association said it would appeal the decision.
In September, Peterson was indicted on felony child abuse charges in Texas. The running back, considered one of the best in the league, was charged in his home state for hitting his son with a stick, leaving welts and bruises on the boy’s legs and buttocks.
Peterson subsequently struck a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge, pay a $4,000 fine and perform community service.
In a letter written to Peterson and released to the media, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Peterson’s reinstatement would be contingent on his completing counseling and a treatment program.
“Under this two-step approach, the precise length of the suspension will depend on your actions,” Goodell said. “You must commit yourself to your counseling and rehabilitative effort, properly care for your children, and have no further violations of law or league policy.”
Goodell cited a new clause in the league’s personal conduct policy in his decision. The policy was changed after the NFL was widely criticized for a perceived lax punishment of Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice.
The league suspended Rice for two games in July after a video of the player dragging his unconscious fiancee from an Atlantic City casino elevator was released. It was widely believed Rice hit his fiancee. After Goodell revamped league policies on domestic violence, a video of Rice punching his fiancee in the face was released by TMZ. Rice is appealing against the league’s decision to suspend him indefinitely in federal court in New York.
Peterson has been on the league’s exempt list – paid but not eligible to play – despite having resolved the criminal charge against him. The union filed an appeal last week to remove Peterson from the exempt list, saying the league wasn’t moving quickly enough on the issue.
Peterson, who claimed the league tried to circumvent the players’ collective bargaining agreement in order to punish him for hitting his child, took part in an arbitration call on Monday with league officials to attempt to resolve the dispute, according to NFL media reporters.
Peterson claims the league mischaracterized his decision not to appear at a scheduled disciplinary hearing on Friday, and that the league refused requests to take him off the exempt list per a previously signed legal agreement.
In a statement issued through the players union, Peterson said the league refused to answer key questions about the meeting, which he and the union believed was extraneous to normal disciplinary procedures.
“At this point, I’ve resolved my matter in the criminal court; I’ve worked to make amends for what I’ve done; I’ve missed most of the season, and I stand ready to be candid and forthcoming with [commissioner Roger] Goodell about what happened,” he said.
“The process they are pushing is arbitrary, inconsistent, and contrary to what they agreed to do, and for those reasons, I never agreed to the hearing,” said Peterson in a statement Sunday. “I’m sorry for all of this, but I can’t excuse their refusal to be fair.”
Peterson is expected to appeal the decision immediately, and the union is requesting a neutral arbiter to oversee the process. He has three business days to submit a written appeal to the commissioner of the league.
The players union responded to the league’s decision, saying it was further evidence of a “credibility gap that exists between the agreements they make and the actions they take”.
“Since Adrian’s legal matter was adjudicated, the NFL has ignored their obligations and attempted to impose a new and arbitrary disciplinary proceeding,” the union said in a statement.
