The Vikings Suspended Chris Cook Without Pay When He Was Arrested, Why Are They Standing by Adrian Peterson?

The Adrian Peterson child abuse case is a difficult discussion to have because so many people have varied opinions on what constitutes discipline. Clearly, the Minnesota Vikings don’t think what their star running back did warrants the charges of “reckless or negligent injury to a child,” or else they’d have deactivated him again this week, or perhaps even cut him.

Instead, they listened to him, and stood by the guy they’re paying $11.7 million to this year.

Discipline is one thing; beating your 4-year old with a stick and leaving marks on his legs and scrotum and filling his mouth with leaves is going way across the line. However, if you posit that on social media, be prepared for an avalanche of disagreement, especially from those residing in southern states and are familiar with discipline-by-switch.

Peterson, in a statement, said “I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child,” but let’s also remember that his father, Nelson Peterson, spent a decade in prison for “laundering money acquired from the distribution of crack cocaine.”

Oh, and one more thing: In October 2011, when Minnesota defensive back Chris Cook was accused of strangling his girlfriend, the Vikings suspended him indefinitely, without pay. He was charged with a felony. He didn’t play the team’s final 10 games. At a trial in March 2012, Cook was acquitted.

Anyway, watch the video above.