Who Can Judge Peterson’s Parenting?

John Gilbert

At a quick glance, the accompanying photo seems to show the oddity of an inline skater cruising down the freeway in Duluth. But look closer: That skater actually is casting three shadows.

That’s correct. Carlos Gomez, from Colombia, was biding his time running between Jarrett Paul of Florida and Wesley Grandy of Colorado in a tight, three-man group that sped along in perfect harmony in the lead, before Perez, 23, bolted to the front and won the 19th annual North Shore Inline Marathon.

Things aren’t always what they seem, it seems, in real life or in the world of sports. Especially in the world of sports, this week. One week ago at this time, we were anticipating the resurgent Minnesota Vikings about the challenge the perennial powerhouse New England Patriots in a game that would show the world, or at least the world that the National Football League thinks it runs, that the Vikings are for real.

One of the reasons for great optimism to all folks purple is that the Patriots are showing signs of slipping, with quarterback Tom Brady getting on, and a rushing defense that shows some serious shortcomings -- perfect for the Vikings, who have the incomparable Adrian Peterson ready and willing to have a big day.
And then, with a thud, we got the news that our own Adrian Peterson had been accused of child abuse, or at least negligence, from the apparent disciplinary “whooping” Peterson had administered to his 4-year-old son several months ago at his home near Houston.

In less than 24 hours, the idyllic life of NFL superstar Peterson, the Vikings poster boy of success as the NFL’s best running back, blew up in a compilation of stories featuring all sorts of legal words and phrases. Peterson returned to Montgomery County, Texas, to be indicted, the Vikings “deactivated” him for the home opener against New England, and, after an impressive opening drive, the suddenly toothless Vikings went down easy, 30-7.

Funny, but the score and the outcome didn’t seem to matter much anymore. What mattered was that we get the facts -- just the facts, please, without the overblown hyperbole of columnists and commentators anxious to put their personal condemnation on Peterson. He was booked for “injury to a child with criminal recklessness or negligence.”

Our Adrian? Known throughout the land as one of sports’ quiet good guys? It became the biggest sports story of the weekend, then it became the biggest news story, all across the country. And each day it seemed to grow more sinister.

What we can discern is that Peterson is less than deserving of the pedestal we’ve built for him. Quietly, he has led the good life, if that includes getting involved with an assortment of young women who apparently were all too willing to get involved right back. Reports are that Peterson has several children, sired with different women -- I’ve heard the number ranges from five to seven, and those are just the ones he knows about.

When he was a youngster, discipline in the Peterson family consisted of finding a small, wiry branch from a tree, with the leaves and twigs trimmed off to leave a springy, whip-like stick. With that, a frustrated parent could administer a “whooping,” which is spelled that way, but is pronounced “whupping” by those who engage in it. A few swats on a bare bottom is generally sufficient to convince a misbehaving youngster that following family rules is a clear preferance.

A lot of us may have experienced just such discipline as kids. Personally, I didn’t. I tried to be a good kid, but there always was that implied threat that my mom could suggest, with a wooden spoon, or something similar. And my dad, well, I never wanted to do anything he didn’t think was proper. But I knew other kids who did get that discipline, and most of them will say today that they still feel nothing but love and respect for their parents, regardless. One woman, who acknowledged that she and her younger brothers frequently faced the switch, said, “I learned right away never to tell a lie.”

In those days, a parent could count on a posse of surrogates to help out, whether a teacher, or another relative properly deputized, or a priest or nun or minister, or athletic coach. But times change, and nowadays anything physical is regarded as corporal punishment, or abuse, or assault if it gets bad enough.

When Adrian Peterson started finding ways to not prevent prolific numbers of offspring, he seems like a dedicated parent. We don’t know that. We do know that in the now-celebrated case, the 4-year-old’s mother in Minnesota sent the child to Texas to spend some time with daddy, who had another son there at the same time. That doesn’t count the younger child that Peterson had, which apparently motivated him to marry his wife, Ashley, in July.

From all reports, it sounds as though the injured child and another son were playing a motorcycle video game, and apparently there was an issue with taking proper turns. When the injured child pushed the other child off the game, Peterson got the switch and administered the “whooping,” which sounds intimidating enough that it might convince most kids to cease and desist. In this case, Peterson swatted the kid repeatedly. He said later that the kid didn’t cry or indicate he was being hurt, and Peterson reportedly said if he had, it might have convinced Peterson that he’d had enough.

A short time later, Peterson sent the boy home to his mother. She noticed some scratches and red marks on his legs, buttocks, and, in says here, scrotum. We don’t know if Adrian simply lost his temper, or was intending to discipline the kid until he showed that he knew he had done wrong by not adhering to family rules or to what he was told. The boy’s mom took him to a doctor’s appointment, and, properly, when the doctor saw the marks he contacted Hennepin County authorities, who contacted Houston authorities.

Peterson has expressed regret about the incident, and made it sound as though he now realizes that the punishment that served as discipline when he was a kid might be inappropriate, to put it mildly, today. It is possible that with a bit of counseling, Peterson might learn some techniques of acceptable parenting.

A guilty verdict in Texas could lead to punishment of up to two years and up to a $10,000 fine, but there also is the possibility of probation. A Texas law suggests a defense of “reasonable discipline,” meaning a parent is free to discipline a child as he or she chooses, as long as the discipline doesn’t go beyond what “the community” might see as reasonable. The fact that the grand jury examined photographic evidence and quickly returned the indictment indicates it has decided the discipline in this case went overboard.

While the actual case may not occur until after the first of the year, the Vikings owners reversed themselves Tuesday. So Peterson won’t play this Sunday against the New Orleans Saints. The news prompted a predictable outcry from fans, all of them well-intentioned. Some said it was understandable he might try to impose the type of discipline he experienced as a kid; others said they would never watch the Vikings again.

The Minneapolis-based Radisson Hotel chain, which has partnered with the Vikings on many promotions, said it would no longer be involved. Other advertisers may follow. It is a mess.

The circumstance was worsened by the recent Ray Rice case, where the Baltimore Ravens running back knocked out his then-girlfriend in an Atlantic City casino. That created the climate that Peterson’s case ventured into.
And then came the latest chapter of the Peterson saga. Yet another woman with one of Peterson’s son disclosed a taped voice exchange in which Peterson acknowledged “whooping” that boy while driving. Peterson said this boy fell on his own and cut his head, creating what has become a permanent scar.

Are we seeing a pattern of abusive parenting here? Or is it another case of Peterson’s attempt at discipline?

I am not in favor of striking a kid, no matter the provocation. But among the other extenuating circumstances in these issues is that we have promoted and glamorized football, the most physically violent sport we have, into the new national pastime.

If you are a tough, well-conditioned player, you are trained for a couple of hours a day, every day, to be as violent as the rules allow on Sunday. If you are too violent, you get a 15-yard penalty. If you go beyond that, you might get ejected from the game. But if you stay just short of that safe line, or if you cross it but don’t get caught, then you might get $5 million a year on a new contract.

If we believe that Adrian Peterson had only his upbringing to guide him into parenting, and with the background of the legal violence he is taught to prepare for and execute every day, that he might have crossed the line of acceptable violence away from the game? If you can accept that premise -- without excusing or condoning it in any way -- can we imagine that of all those violent players on all those NFL teams, he is the only one that strayed over to the too-violent side?

Of course not. Ray Rice’s case proves otherwise, and there are many others. USA Today keeps a database on all NFL arrests since the year 2000. It reportedly says that the NFL average is 22 arrests per team; the Minnesota Vikings have 44.

My wife, Joan, and I have two adult sons. We never struck either of them when they were kids, no matter how frustrated we might have gotten over any situation. Really, they didn’t give us any reason to even consider it. I’d like to think that’s the way modern families should function. But I am not going to suggest that we have the perfect formula for how everybody should do their parenting.

Oh Yes, The Games

It will be nice when we can get back to talking about sports as games, rather than legal cases. Although to make a disgustingly inappropriate analogy, it was nothing short of a crime the way the Vikings and the Gophers played last weekend.

Matt Cassel, who had been so good, led the Vikings to an early touchdown march, and then couldn’t seem to execute anything positive. Teddy Bridgewater stayed on the bench, and may not get in this weekend, either, but another performance like Cassel’s 30-7 loss might bring about a change. As I’ve said, if Cassel keeps playing, that will mean he is doing very well, with Bridgewater waiting on the sideline. That wasn’t the case against New England.

The Golden Gophers, meanwhile, went down to Texas and got walloped by Texas Christian by exactly the same 30-7 score. Mitch Leidner, who inherited the quarterback job, threw some of the most ill-advised lobs into double coverage than I’ve seen any major college attempt. The result was three interceptions and a fumble in a nightmare performance.


UMD Escapes, Comes Home

The UMD Bulldogs provide us all with relief from the hassles of watching the failures of teams like the Vikings and Gophers. The Bulldogs defeated Augustana 23-22 in an overtime escape that makes them 2-0 coming home to face  Southwest Minnesota State at 6 p.m. Saturday.

At Augustana, UMD had the edge through the first half, but could muster only a pair of Andrew Brees field goals for a 6-0 lead. Augustana came out firing in the second half, and jumped ahead, then pinned the Bulldogs back for a 16-6 lead with five minutes left.

It looked pretty hopeless, but Drew Bauer brought the Bulldogs back for a 16-16 tie in those last five minutes. In fact, UMD got the ball back from its inspired defense and had a chance to win it at the final buzzer. But Brees missed, and the game went to overtime. Bauer ran in for a touchdown and Brees made the point for a 23-16 lead on the first possession of overtime, and when Augustana came back for a touchdown, gained on a fourth-down Hail Mary pass that worked, Lucas Wainman kicked the extra point try off the left upright, allowing UMD to have a happy busride home.

“We dropped a couple of touchdown passes, but our defense forced two straight three-and-outs and we got the ball back for a field goal with 14 seconds left,” said UMD coach Curt Wiese. “Augustana played a real good game, but I was happy with how we stayed calm, with a lot of positive attitudes that allowed us to get back into it. Then we scored in three plays to start overtime, with Drew running it in on a designed run off the left side.

“I remember we came back from being 19 points down against Bemidji one time, but I’ve never had a team come from 10 points down in the last six minutes. And it will be the same thing this weekend, because Southwest State has a quarterback who is an outstanding athlete and likes to scramble.”

So this Bulldog team remains calm and poised in all sorts of stressful situations but pulled out victories in both games -- one by hanging on and one by coming back. Maybe Wiese should have the lads practice panicking a little!