VikesCentric: Where Do We Go From Here?

Yesterday morning we all woke up with Adrian Peterson as one of our "favorite" football players. Sure he has his personal issues off the field, just as we all do, but on the field, he was the man. Then the news breaks yesterday afternoon and terms like "reckless negligence" and "child abuse" begin to be thrown around pretty loosely. By the end of the night, when the actual story starts to form, we're left with a perplexing situation, a couple of them in fact.

What's your stance on corporal punishment? What should the government's stance on corporal punishment be? How does the NFL react to something like this? How do fans react to something like this?

There are many specific questions that all lead towards one that envelopes them all. Where do we go from here?

Adrian Peterson:
What a difference a day can make. Since the news of alleged child abuse broke yesterday afternoon, Adrian has gone from scheming a way to beat the Patriots on the field to long phone calls with his lawyer attempting to avoid potential jail time. The least of his worries may be coming from a league that, amidst one of their worst weeks in history, is ready to throw down the hammer on offenders if only just to prove a point.

On the heels of the Ray Rice situation the NFL has enacted and put into place a more strict, cut and dry policy against domestic abuse. The policy states that a player could be subject to six games without pay after a first offense and that mitigating circumstances could push the penalty longer.

In its infancy, the focus of this policy has been directed towards violence against women. The video release of Ray Rice's elevator tirade made it all the more real and incredibly necessary this week. But to a person with some semblance of common sense, child abuse would likely fall under the umbrella of domestic abuse as well which means that, pending the outcome of the investigation, Adrian could be facing a six game penalty from the league.

For this week, the Vikings did the right thing and on their own volition deactivated Peterson from their game against the Patriots.

We all know that's actually not the case and Peterson's situation likely rounded out what will forever go down as one of the worst week's in the history of the league.

With Goodell's feet firmly placed against the fire already, he will be forced to act on this Peterson case and the fallout will likely pin Adrian as his sacrificial lamb.

But the new NFL policy was not developed for this sort of a situation. It was put in place to protect women from an epidemic of domestic abuse that was and is running through a league of overly empowered, testosterone driven men. But if the policy protects adult women from the men in their lives, it would only make sense that it also protects young children, four-year-old boys, from those same men.

There is still a lot that we have to learn about this case as it goes through court system. Peterson, who turned himself in to Houston police last night, has an uphill battle to fight against not only the prosecutors but a society enraged by violence and empowerment from professional athletes.

Society:
Corporal punishment has long been a hot button topic of conversation in this country. Generations of past were raised with spankings, belts and paddles as a regular part of their childhood. It was simply part of life. But it might be time for our country, as a nation, to instill some level of federal distinction on what is and what isn't considered child abuse.

If you're anything like me, your eyebrows were raised. If you're from the south, where punishment via switch is a little more common, it may have seemed like nothing to you…at least until the pictures came out. When those photos depicting the wounds left on the poor 4-year old boy came out, I hope that the opinion changed for everybody. There's no way you will convince me that it wasn't too far and we all should have jumped up and been outraged. Red backsides were present in my Minnesota childhood, but bruises and lacerations are when you've crossed the line.

As a boy who witnessed my own parents mentally struggle with their own corporal punishment dilemma, and saw first hand the shift from spankings, away from "hitting" their kids and towards other forms of punishment, isn't it time that America puts some sort of standard together?

I'm not calling for the outlawing of spankings, but when part of the country thinks it's okay to hit your child with a stick and the other is outraged by it, truly how united are we?

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As I mentioned above, there's a lot more to this story that will play out and answer some of these questions for us. By all accounts, Adrian is cooperating with authorities in Houston as we speak. He's not running from the situation and he's not denying that the wounds in question were left there by him. But as this continues to play out, as Adrian re-assesses his actions, as the NFL attempts to handle the situation and as the court system determines the difference between corporal punishment and child abuse, I hope that we as a society are paying attention. I hope that conversations are being had about all of these situations. We are a nation that has long since learned from the mistakes of our past and unfortunately for them, the mistakes of celebrities play out in the public far too often. I hope that we can learn from this, change the way we operate, if only a little, and stand up tall on the other side better people, better families and a better nation.