Due Process

Growing up, I treated athletes as heroes, and maybe they were.  Or the times were different, so that police and reporters looked the other way when somebody drank too much or let loose with their fists.  Whatever the reason, I never had cause to connect a member of the White Sox to felony behavior.

How times have changed, as Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson can attest.  Peterson pleaded guilty to charges that he hit his son with a switch.  The plea kept him out of jail but didn’t put him back on the playing field.  NFL Roger Goodell has suspended Peterson for the rest of the season, a decision Peterson is appealing.  I agree.

No, I didn’t beat Clare with a switch or anything else.  Yes, I believe in sparing the rod.  But more to the point, this is the grownup world, where due process has to apply.  If an arbitrator finds that the NFL Players Association agreed in collective bargaining to the commissioner having broad disciplinary powers, then I have no problem with Peterson going bye-bye.  MLB and its players have hammered out a disciplinary code that seems to work; just ask Alex Rodriguez.  Adrian Peterson deserves no more, no less.

Athletes aren’t heroes any more than they’re role models, but they are individuals with the right to due process.  If you’re looking for a villain here, it’s the prosecutors in Texas who signed off on no jail time for Peterson.  You can’t play behind bars, unless they’re doing a remake of “The Longest Yard.”