DeMaurice Smith: "The NFL has been making it up as they go along"

NFLPA Director DeMaurice Smith called into Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio shortly after the NFL announced its decision to suspend Adrian Peterson for the rest of the season, and perhaps beyond. “Our initial reaction is that the process that the NFL has employed since the beginning of the season has been arbitrary, inconsistent, and uneven,” he said. “You get the feeling that the NFL, over the past few months, has been simply making it up as they go along. That is something that is not in the best interest of the game, the players, or the sponsors.”

Smith said that he did not necessarily know what the Union’s legal defense of Peterson will be, and then referenced Roger Goodell’s stammering Ray Rice press conference, saying that it did not “inspire the appropriate level of confidence … I know that there is a growing gap between the players and the league office.”

Smith finished by hammering Goodell again: “You can’t have it both ways. You can’t sit on the sidelines and try to bully your way into something and then call it fair. You can’t make it up as you go along. I do think that, most importantly, the growing lack of confidence that our players have in our Commissioner is something that the league office needs to address quickly and responsibly.”

The NFLPA has released the following statement on Peterson’s behalf:

It’ll be interesting to see where this all goes from here.