Has Adrian Peterson played his last game with the Vikings?

By Brian Murphy
St. Paul Pioneer Press
MINNEAPOLIS - Adrian Peterson’s football career in Minnesota is in jeopardy after the Vikings suspended the greatest running back in team history indefinitely Wednesday pending the outcome of his criminal case in Texas.
Peterson’s age (29) and top-heavy salary ($13 million in 2015) at a devalued position already made him a target for the Vikings to cut his pay in 2015 or attempt to trade their franchise player.
Now the team has sought and received from the NFL a rarely used roster exemption allowing the Vikings to banish Peterson while continuing to pay his $691,176 weekly salary. His contract will pay him $11.75 million this season and $13 million in 2015.
The club also assumed the judicial timeline established in Texas, where Peterson was indicted on a felony charge of child abuse - predicating its next move on how quickly Peterson resolves his case.
“Everyone’s asked, would you have cut him?” said general manager Rick Spielman. “We felt after we reviewed everything, this was the best possible solution. Until these legal matters are resolved he will remain on this exemption list.”
Phil Grant, Montgomery County first assistant district attorney, said Wednesday that cases similar to Peterson’s typically take nine to 12 months to go to trial.
Peterson is due in court Oct. 8, when he is expected to formally enter a plea. Grant said his office has not discussed any plea bargain with Peterson’s defense attorney, Rusty Hardin.
“We could plead sooner than Oct. 8 if an agreement is reached, but again there is nothing in the works at this time,” Grant said.
Causing injury to a child is a felony under Texas law, punishable by jail time or probation for first-time offenders.
Peterson acknowledged striking his 4-year-old son with a switch during a May visit to his Houston home like his father punished him growing up in central Texas. He is preparing to defend himself at trial as a parent who chose that manner to discipline his child.
Hardin released a statement Wednesday saying Peterson wants to continue playing in the NFL and to reserve judgment pending due process.
“He is prepared to resolve this matter in the appropriate legal forum rather than the court of public opinion,” wrote Hardin, a prominent Houston lawyer who also represented pitcher Roger Clemens against steroids allegations.
“I’ve spent my entire career asking people to wait until all the facts are in, and I’m doing so again today. Ultimately, it will be up to a judge and jury to decide this case, which is the way it should be. Ours is the greatest legal system in the world, and Adrian is confident that a just result will emerge once all the facts are presented.”
The crisis for the Vikings peaked Wednesday morning when owner Zygi Wilf, team president Mark Wilf, chief legal counsel Kevin Warren and Spielman issued mea culpas during a news conference at Winter Park.
“Adrian will be away from the team and focused on this personal situation,” Zygi Wilf said. “We will support Adrian during this legal process. But we firmly believe this is the right decision.”
At 12:47 a.m., the team released a statement announcing they had suspended Peterson only two days after reinstating him. The decision prompted corporate sponsors and charitable partners to flee while drawing the ire of Gov. Mark Dayton and Sen. Al Franken, who called on the Vikings to suspend Peterson.
Mark Wilf was asked whether the reversal was a financial decision.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We value our partners, our sponsors, the community and especially our fans. In the end, it really is about getting it right. We made a mistake. The main thing is we’re getting it right, and that’s how we came to this decision.”
The Vikings consulted the NFL for a solution that allowed the team to distance itself from Peterson while strengthening its bargaining position with the future hall of famer.
Peterson, who turns 30 in March, is the NFL’s highest-paid running back. He already has earned the $36 million guaranteed when he signed a six-year contract extension in September 2011.
Peterson is due to earn $13 million in 2015, but the Vikings only would have to count the remaining $2.4 million of his pro-rated signing bonus against the salary cap. He is scheduled to earn $15 million in 2016 and $18 million in 2017.
Given his contract and unresolved legal status, has Peterson played his last game in Minnesota?
“Our focus today is to get this right,” Spielman answered. “And we want to support Adrian. That’s the most important thing now is to support him through his legal and his personal matters.”
Spielman said he talked to Peterson and his agent, Ben Dogra, about resolving the issue through the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.
Teams are allowed to suspend a player up to four weeks for “conduct detrimental to the team,” according to the CBA.
The Vikings did that Friday with Peterson, who was deactivated for Sunday’s 30-7 loss to the Patriots.
The exempt/commissioner’s permission list in the league bylaws allows the Vikings to discipline Peterson longer and determine when he can resume football activities.
The provision also allows the Vikings to replace Peterson on their 53-man roster although his salary still counts against the cap.
The Philadelphia Eagles used the exemption in 2009 when quarterback Michael Vick served a prison sentence for running a dog-fighting ring.
The NFL Players Association released a statement Wednesday saying Peterson took “a voluntary leave with pay to take care of his personal and legal issues.”
However, Warren, the Vikings’ executive vice president of legal affairs, said it was the Vikings who initiated talks with the league about harsher discipline.
“You need to think outside the box and become creative to work within the CBA, to consider all the legal implications,” Warren said. “We felt this was the best possible way to accomplish those goals within the confines of the rules that currently exist.
“At the appropriate time it will be come very clear what the people of Texas feel about what Adrian did or did not do.”
So Peterson’s career becomes frozen in time, his fate resting in the hands of a Montgomery County jury or District Judge Kelly W. Case.
The 2012 NFL MVP who rushed for 2,097 yards, the second-highest season total in NFL history, is stuck at 10,190 career yards - all with the Vikings.
In the season opener Sept. 7 against the Rams in St. Louis, Peterson rushed for 75 yards on 21 carries, a pedestrian 3.6-yard average.
His final carry of the game was a 1-yard loss over right end, one play before Vikings tight end Kyle Rudolph caught a 7-yard touchdown pass.
Was it Peterson’s swan song with the Vikings?
“I haven’t really thought that far ahead, but it’s one of those things that eventually happens to everybody,” said left guard Charlie Johnson. “That’s the way this business is. There are very few exceptions.
“Whoever thought Peyton Manning would be in a Bronco uniform? Whether Adrian comes back here or somewhere else, it’ll be weird. But it is what it is.”