Peterson Indicted for Child Abuse

[Big Dave2]

Quote:

Hardin: NFL Punishing Peterson For Their Past Mistake With Rice

Adrian Peterson's attorney Rusty Hardin believes Roger Goodell and the NFL are making it up as they go along and punished Peterson for their mistakes handling the Ray Rice situation.

When Hardin appeared on the Dan Patrick Show this morning, Patrick asked him if the public was looking at the Peterson situation through the eyes of the Ray Rice scandal, meaning is there an over-punishment taking place because of the lack thereof initially in Rice's case.

"I think clearly so," Hardin said. "The grand jury that originally heard this case listened to Adrian for over three and a half hours where he voluntarily appeared, cooperated with everybody and they initially decided not to indict him. And that was on a Thursday and then on a Monday or Tuesday TMZ came out with the Ray rice video. On that Thursday the same grand jury decided to reconsider the case and the returned an indictment.

"Then after the prosecutors look at it they decided that it wasn't child abuse and they recommended a misdemeanor which is causing anyone any pain in Texas. We made a recommendation that we thought fairly disposed of everything with Adrian accepting responsibility for everything and we hoped and thought he would be eligible to get back on the field of play."

Hardin went on to criticize more of Goodell's handling of the situation, saying the NFL was 'embarrassed' by how they handled the Rice situation after how the public reacted and then mentioned what he hopes takes place moving forward. Some of the transcription is below. If you'd like to hear the entire interview, scroll to the bottom of the page.

"The problem is when you get caught up in this flood of publicity, the NFL was embarrassed by how they handled the Ray Rice thing initially and now they're beating their chest with a policy that didn't even exist at the time Adrian was disciplining his child. They make up a new policy, they make up new rules, they apply them to somebody's past conduct when the rules were not in effect. And they want to put him out for the whole year.

"I think the union and others will deal with the NFL through the regular appeals process, I hope that it gets out of Mr. Goodell's hands it goes to an independent arbitrator, I trust and hope when that happens people will find out that this was an arbitrary procedure and an unfair punishment.

"He didn't intend he was going to inflict those type of injuries. He truly believes he is the person of discipline and accomplishment that he's had in spite of everything because of the way he was raised... There are millions of parents in this country that feel the same way. That doesn't mean there are no limits. This particular incident crossed over, not with intention. And he made a mistake and has paid tremendously for it. But for the NFL, then to decide what they think is appropriate punishment or so in addition to whatever the criminal justice system says I just think is wrong.

"What they want is a fair process. This is a deal where the NFL is making up the rules as they go along. They got caught because they originally did something they thought was right and then when they got their hand caught in the cookie jar they lied about what they knew and Adrian is now paying the price for the mistakes they made in the past and that's just wrong."

[upnorth]

Jeff Pash video NFL VP

[upnorth]

Ruling

[Stcloudangler]

Worst case scenario is he lands on a division rival. Detroit would look pretty formidable with him as their main back.

I will go out on a limb and say the Colts try again and get rid of the mistake they made with T Rich

[pikestabber]

If you believe the most recent reports, the Wilfs claim they are mad at the NFL, too, and they plan to keep AP on next year. Could be posturing to increase his value for a trade right before the draft after this blows over a little more.

AP should have just got drunk and killed someone with his car. He'd have been back on the field weeks ago.

[FISHINGURU]

The Wilfs are probably dumb enough to want to keep him.

I'd rather get a real #1 WR, a new LB, and a couple O-Line for the same price.

[BuckSutherland]

The Wilfs are probably dumb enough to want to keep him.

I'd rather get a real #1 WR, a new LB, and a couple O-Line for the same price.

A real #1 wide receiver??? So he can help block downfield for all the checkdown throws we are gonna have to stomach the next 10 years?? A WR doesn't matter when you dont have a QB. I will say it again. Last week Wright, Patterson, Rudolph, Jennings, Chase Ford had around 4 catches combined for about 30 yards. You want to tell me that they couldnt get open AT ALL??? Ponder could have at least doubled that against that horrendous Bears team.

[BuckSutherland]

I should have added that the Wiff's probably are dumb enough to keep him. I mean they only paid a washed up DE $17 million last year to go out and air rope about 8 goats that meant nothing in a 5-10-1 season. BTW, we are 1-8-1 against the Packers the last 10 games.

[FISHINGURU]

A real #1 wide receiver??? So he can help block downfield for all the checkdown throws we are gonna have to stomach the next 10 years?? A WR doesn't matter when you dont have a QB. I will say it again. Last week Wright, Patterson, Rudolph, Jennings, Chase Ford had around 4 catches combined for about 30 yards. You want to tell me that they couldnt get open AT ALL??? Ponder could have at least doubled that against that horrendous Bears team.

Wright, Rudolph, and Jennings barely played, hard to get open and rack up catches and yards when your not on the field lol.

I think you expect too much out of this team this year, we have a whole new coaching staff, a rookie QB that wasn't supposed to play this season, a rookie RB when we are supposed to have one of the best RB's in the league, a fake #1 old WR, a 2nd year WR that has barely played the position, #1 TE down for most the year, a bunch of no namers taking their spots and to top it all off a dumpster fire O-line.

Blunder wouldn't of doubled anything except fumbles and Int's.

Can we join you in your fantasy land where teams excel with all new coaches, rookie QB, rookie RB, bad WR's, bad TE's and dumpster fire O-line?

[swampman]

Totally agree Fishinguru. At this stage of the game I am actually a little more concerned about Patterson, hard to watch his route running with what you see on tv but he seems to have got more tentative in his kickoff returns IMO.

[chanfish]

Looks like 0-6 against division this year.

Dont see it getting any better in the next few years unless we bring in some strong free agents like they did with winfield and williams years ago..

i am starting to really wonder about spielman now..esp given his past history in detroit and miami. at some point its really all about personnel and we just dont have it..flashy first round picks and flops after that...cant build a team that way..

[chanfish]

Looks like 0-6 against division this year.

I dont see it getting any better unless they go out and

get some experienced free agents like they did with williams

and winfield years ago.

Starting to really wonder about Spielman too...His past record

in Miami and Detroit is starting to mirror ours here now..Too many

flashy first round picks and flops after that...

[Scott K]

It is a brand new staff, and system, with a bunch of young/rookie players on the team, give them a break. They only won 5 games last year, did you expect a Superbowl this year? Our starting QB is out, and we are playing with a rookie QB as well, not to mention we are down the best RB in the league. I think your expectations of the season are a little high!

[fishersofmen]

Ray Rice has been reinstated and can play football now but Peterson can't?

[FISHINGURU]

I'm sure Peterson is going to have to jump through the same hoops, it's Rogers way of saying he tried but it's out of his hands now.

The real question is what team will want to sign Rice? He's junk and they would take a big PR hit signing this mouse.

[fishersofmen]

I would be a bit surprised if this suspension held up entirely.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is likely (but not certain) to be reinstated by a league appeals officer, Harold Henderson, next week, the ball would be in Minnesota’s court as to whether to activate him for the final three games of the year according to Peter King of SI.com. We’ll hear lots about it […]