Adrian Peterson Fumes: ‘Don’t Compare Me To Ray Rice’

Adrian Peterson, the embattled Minnesota Vikings running back who was suspended for child abuse, is fuming mad at comparisons that he is in any way the same as Ray Rice.

Rice, a former Baltimore Ravens star, is now more widely known for knocking out his then-girlfriend, now-wife Janay Rice.

Peterson, on the other hand, used a switch on his 4-year-old son, leaving horrific injuries that managed to get the former Oklahoma Sooner arrested.

“I spanked my child and no matter what my intentions were, I ended up leaving those marks on his legs,” Peterson told USA Today newspaper in a recent interview. “That’s not what I tried to do, but that’s what ended up happening. Don’t put me in the same [category as Rice].”

Yahoo! News notes that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Adrian Peterson “indefinitely without pay after pleading no contest to a charge of misdemeanor reckless assault for striking his son in May.”

Peterson will not be back for the 2014-15 Season, and he will not be considered for reinstatement until April 15. Goodell was unimpressed by how Adrian Peterson has reacted to the situation, stating that he has “shown no meaningful remorse.” Peterson has vowed to clean up his parenting act, however.

The 4-year-old at the heart of the matter is one of six biological children Peterson has had with six different women. He has vowed to never use a switch on any of them again.

“I won’t ever use a switch again… There is different situations where a small child needs to be disciplined as far as timeouts, taking their toys away, making them take a nap. There’s so many different ways to discipline your child.”

Peterson also took exception to Goodell indicating that he was not remorseful of his actions.

“Don’t say that I’m not remorseful, because in my statement, I showed that I was remorseful,” he said. “I regretted everything that took place. I love my child, more than anyone could ever imagine.”

Asked why he did not attend a scheduled discipline hearing earlier this month, he had this to say.

“I didn’t want to go into a situation blind… I didn’t know what to expect. Who’s going to be there? Who will I be meeting with? What details are we going to get into?”

Peterson was also upset at how the general public is perceiving him as a parent.

“All they care about is, ‘Hey, these are the pictures. They say that he put leaves in his mouth. They say that he beat him. They say that I hit his hands (and those were) defensive wounds.’… I made a mistake… People have painted this picture because they feel like, ‘OK, this has happened and this is what has to take place.’ But they don’t know the love that my kids have for me.”

The NFL Players’ Union filed an appeal to Goodell’s suspension decision, accusing Goodell of having “rendered yourself evidently partial and biased in this matter” based on League missteps with the handling of the Ray Rice situation.

What do you think, readers? Has Adrian Peterson said the right things to deserve early reinstatement or was Commissioner Goodell justified in suspending him indefinitely for the rest of the season?

[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]