Seriously. Is that three different women with whom he’s had children out of wedlock? I don’t care about that per se, but the hypocrisy does bother me. He’s very outspoken about being a devout Christian, he’s against gay marriage, etc. Oddly, that irks me more than the beatings, though obviously the latter is a much bigger sin.
To answer the original question, in my very humble opinion the league should.
- He should be suspended for the season
- Before training camp next year he can be reinstated at the discretion of the commissioner if he is attending parenting classes.
- If he ever strikes another unarmed human he’s out of the league.
At this point does it matter what the NFL does? They lost me over the Michael Vick situation. They lost other fans over Rice. Still, their product remains viable. At this point do the remaining fans really care?
Every year, obviously, older fans die and newer fans are born. It may not make much of a difference today, but what they do today will affect the popularity of the league in 10 or 20 years.
I’m not going to stop watching over this. I play in too many fantasy leagues and have 40 years of emotional attachment to my team. However, my son started playing football and watching the NFL just this year. He’s not much older than the child that Peterson beat. At some point he’ll learn about these issues and decide for himself if he’ll be a fan in the future.
I agree with most of what you said, but I would replace “the child” with “the children” .
Indefinite suspension. Don’t even think about letting him back until at least 2016, and then only if he shows sincere intent to rehabilitate himself. I’m mindful of the need to not rush to judgment, but I don’t see any reason to “let the legal system run its course” in this case. We’ve seen the pictures of the child’s wounds and Peterson has publicly admitted to inflicting said wounds – what more do we need? If for some reason those pictures are deemed inadmissible in court and Peterson isn’t convicted of anything, would anyone argue that the NFL should let him off the hook?
At least the Vikings as of now are only the second most despicable organization in the league, since as far as I know they haven’t announced that the child regrets the role he played in the incident.
Whenever someone says “I was beaten and I turned out ok”, I want to say - no you didn’t, you turned out as a person who thinks it’s good to beat children.
Just for context, what are the latest data on general American view on corporal punishment?
Looks like ~70% pro, varying a bit depending on demography.
Of course pro-spanking isn’t the same as pro-abuse - this fellow argues that under Texas law ( which certainly allows spanking ) Peterson might be toast if the allegations prove out.
Rosie O’Donnell just made essentially that argument. People say that type of stuff fairly often.
Vick plays for the Jets.
Interestingly enough, he was asked how many kids he has and he declined to answer. However, the rumor is he has/had at least 7 kids by a number of different women.
As far as punishment, I am not sure the NFL can justify doing much given how conflicted people are on the issue of corporal punishment. It’s obvious AP went too far, and that the scientific evidence is pretty clear that physical punishment is a sub optimal corrective measure in almost all cases, but the law is still behind the evidence and so are many people’s attitudes. This article outlines some of my concerns:
Given these basics disagreements, how can the NFL logically justify punishing him? I suppose they can argue he is hurting their brand and because of bad publicity, but I would bet a majority of their audience doesn’t think he did anything particularly wrong.
I want Roger Goodell to cane him.
I’ll take that bet. How much do you wanna put on your position?
I happened to be in the States the last couple of days and this came up a lot, and I had occasion to talk about it with some conservative-looking men, white and black, all sorts of people, and every single person thought Peterson committed a crime. Spanking is one thing, whipping a child like a slave is another.
I find it awfully hard to believe a grown man can lash a 4 year old that many times and not derive some sort of gratification/enjoyment from it.
Having said that, I thought the Vikings first reaction was fine. Suspend him pending the criminal case. Figure that would go on for at least a season. I would tack on maybe two more games if convicted (since he’d already missed at least 16), and time served if acquitted. Next offense would warrant cancel of contract.
Do they disagree with corporal punishment like most evolved people, or do they think he “went too far”. Because the latter point seems to be more common in my experience, and is not enough of a distinction (IMO) to make a convincing moral case to those people that he should get really harsh punishment. It’s also hard for the NFL to drop the hammer on AP not because he beat his kids, but because he left marks and evidence. It don’t think the distinction is a basis of outrage and moral indignation with a huge chunk of the NFL audience.
Peterson required to remain away from all team activities until legal issues resolved.
So they flipped. Then they flopped. Now they’re flipping again.
I’m of two minds.
Emotions say that he should receive stiff punishment yesterday.
But how can you punish someone who isn’t found guilty?
With the caveat that I expect that the NFL will do what it can to produce exciting games and people with a lot of money can lawyer up and get favorable decisions.
What does the Dope think of a Players Council? Take punishment out of the Leagues domain.
Scenario: When Rice is initially implicated in the domestic violence a the Players Council convenes. Testimony to be secret and legally (somehow) protected against use in criminal/civil court (so they give their whole story, maybe).
The Players Council says if you are found innocent nothing happens.
If you plea out to a lesser charge you receive ‘x’ punishment.
If you are found guilty of what you are charged with you receive ‘y’ punishment.
If it is later found that you really fucked up you receive ‘z’ punishment.
Player A is charged with a misdemeanor that can give up to a year punishment. Player A found innocent and nothing happens. Player A pleas out to a lesser charge to receives half of the punishment; 6 months out of the game to be served after fulfilling criminal penalties. Player A is found guilty and he gets 1 year suspension after serving his sentence. Player A is found innocent/pleas/found guilty of said crime and more information is brought up and his punishment is twice the criminal court and he is suspended 2 years.
I doubt that this would work. Another layers of political BS; another way for players to dodge blame. But maybe players would be concerned with how players are viewed in the league.
Misdemeanor crimes would be wildly over punished vs felonies. What would a timeline for additional info be?
I lack the knowledge that would put something in place and my idealism of self policing may not even be feasible.
Please. For all that is holy, PLEASE stop letting athletes speak. Just put in their contracts that they can’t speak or else. Not even at the grocery store or 7-11. Maybe not even in their own houses. It never goes well. EVER. What an ass…
I believe we should amend the constitution to avoid endless legal problems with your excellent suggestion.
You would be wrong.
I was spanked, sometimes with a belt. While I do think that, on rare occasions a single, stinging slap on a fleshy part (buttocks or behind) simply to get attention to the parent might be called for, I did not turn out as a person who thinks it’s good to beat children. B does not have to follow A. Two now-grown children - each one needed it exactly once, and both were given plenty of opportunity to avoid it. The rarity said that “this meant business”; they probably both thought “he’s not going to do it”.
Nothing is ever black and white across the whole population.
The NFL should do nothing.
I don’t understand why people want the NFL to be a dictatorship that runs roughshod over people. The justice system should deal with him, and while he’s serving his penalty in the justice system, he should be ineligible to play.
Once he’s served his punishment, he should be allowed back in. I don’t see people jumping on the band wagon to prevent Actors, Actuaries, Artists, Engineers, Politicians etc who perform illegal activities from ever working in their field again, and I don’t feel professional athletes should be treated in any differently.