The NFL brought some clarity to Adrian Peterson’s playing status by announcing Tuesday morning it had suspended the standout running back for the Minnesota Vikings without pay for at least the remainder of the 2014 season.
But the running back’s future isn’t entirely clear. Not yet. Plenty of procedural and legal maneuvering remains to be done, to the point that it still is possible Peterson could be eligible to play for the Vikings this weekend.
The NFL Players Association announced quickly it would appeal Peterson’s suspension on his behalf and would demand that a neutral arbitrator hear the appeal. If the union wins its already pending grievance on Peterson’s behalf to have him removed from the exempt-commissioner’s permission list and if Peterson’s appeal of his just-imposed suspension is pending, it is possible he would be eligible to play for the Vikings when they host the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
That doesn’t mean the Vikings would allow him to play. The team already placed Peterson on its game-day inactive list once this season, and it could do so again if this scenario unfolds. But that underscores the point that the Peterson situation is not quite settled.
The NFL has made its intentions clear: It does not want to see Peterson on the field again this season.
The league could have taken the “time served” approach favored, it appeared, by Peterson’s representatives. Peterson already has missed nine games. The first of those missed games came when the Vikings de-activated him for a game while he still was on the 53-man roster. The last eight of those games came after Peterson agreed in September to be placed on the exempt-commissioner’s permission list.
The use of the previously obscure exempt list to put Peterson on paid leave while he faced charges in Texas stemming from him disciplining his 4-year-old son by striking the child with a switch was a temporary solution crafted with the NFL and the Vikings under immense public pressure from fans, politicians and business partners to act sooner rather than later.
There had been a significant outcry when the Vikings took steps toward permitting Peterson to play with the charges against him pending. The controversy over the NFL’s handling of the Ray Rice case was raging at the time. Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy, who had been found guilty by a judge of threatening and assaulting his former girlfriend and was awaiting a jury trial as part of his appeal, consented to be placed on the exempt list the same day that Peterson did.
Peterson and Hardy had to agree to be placed on the list because under the sport’s collective bargaining agreement, the most a franchise can suspend a player without pay for conduct detrimental to the team is four games. The same four-game standard applies to de-activations with pay, thanks to a change in the CBA related to the Philadelphia Eagles once sending home wide receiver Terrell Owens and paying him not to play for them.
Peterson has been paid his weekly salary of $691,176 while not playing for the Vikings. Some of those who argued in favor of immediate reinstatement for Peterson said that Peterson could pay a fine that would have made at least a portion of the games he already has missed equivalent, in their view, to a suspension.
The NFL rejected that approach, saying it believes a suspension without pay beyond Peterson’s stay on the exempt list is warranted. Virtually from the moment Peterson struck his recent plea deal in his legal case to avoid jail time, people familiar with the thinking of league officials said those NFL decision-makers remained mindful of what Peterson had admitted doing in the case.
That mindset was clear in the letter that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote to Peterson, portions of which were released by the league Tuesday.
“The well-being of your children is of paramount concern,” Goodell wrote. “In the absence of speaking to you to understand your current disposition toward child discipline, we cannot be sure that this conduct will not be repeated. Moreover, we are unaware of any effort on your part to acknowledge the seriousness of your conduct and your responsibility to demonstrate a genuine commitment to change.”
Six games remain in the Vikings’ season. The NFL on Tuesday cited the six-game guideline for a suspension for a first-time offender that it put in place in August when it amended the sport’s personal conduct policy. The league also said in August that a suspension could be longer (or shorter) for a first-time offender depending on circumstances. A more complete overhaul of the conduct policy is pending, and Goodell has left open the possibility of him surrendering some of the power that he currently possesses to make disciplinary decisions under the policy. He also has raised the prospect of having a panel of outside experts make future decisions about players being placed on paid leave while facing criminal charges. But in the meantime, Goodell and the NFL had to deal with the Peterson case, and they and the union have been at odds at virtually every step.
The NFL said it will not consider Peterson’s possible reinstatement before April 15. By then, Peterson will have turned 30, the age at which many NFL front office executives long have considered running backs’ careers to be in decline. Peterson is an exceptional player who ran for more than 2,000 yards in a season as recently as 2012. But Vikings owner Zygi Wilf has not said whether or not he wants Peterson back.