Adrian Peterson gave an interview to USA Today yesterday filled with the repentant, remorseful attitude he refused to acknowledge during the several months leading up that interview. It's only AFTER the suspension penalty that he has suddenly changed his attitude.
I'm always wary of someone who changes his tune so suddenly, especially when that was the ONE major condition that was placed on him by those who did the punishing. He was forced to backdown on threat of ending his career.
To save his career he needed to come out against child abuse, but he didn't really do that. What he did was subtly change the term of what he did from "whipping" to "spanking. It was not a spanking. It was a beating. IF HE DOES NOT SEE THE DIFFERENCE, HE REALLY HASN'T CHANGED. If and when he sees that this was not a spanking, I'll accept his apology. For now he's doing the same thing that every celebrity does when they get get caught. He's admitting that he's made a mistake without ever admitting that what he did was wrong. (I've ranted on this in the past. Summary- Mistake: accidental. Wrong: A choice.)
It's his attempt at a convenient way out of this mess. Most will say that's enough. It isn't, but society won't bother with the difference. What makes it worse is that people beating their children in the future will be careful to call what THEY did "a spanking" as well, further blurring the term and the line between the two, trying to make these beatings sound more acceptable.
I didn't think I could have a lower opinion of Adrian Peterson, but he's now made it easier for people to get away with beating their children in the future.
I hope the league notices, and asks him about what he thinks a spanking is. That's the crux of everything that this incident is about.
At least he said that he would no longer use a switch on his children...
...that's a start.
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11911885/adrian-peterson-suspended-minnesota-vikings-running-back-apologizes-physical-abuse-son
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