Minnesota Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman held a press conference today to announce the team’s decision to reactivate child abuser Adrian Peterson. Spielman stressed that the team did not condone child abuse, and that Peterson — who was arrested Friday for child abuse — should be allowed due process under the law.
But he also said: “We feel strongly as an organization that this [was] disciplining a child.”
Spielman’s couldn’t-care-less attitude angered one reporter who asked, “What part of those photos don’t tell you it’s abuse.”
The press conference was a PR disaster for the Vikings. Outraged Twitter users sent Spielman trending on the social media platform today.
Prior to the press conference, Peterson released a statement saying he was not a child abuser and he was “sorry” for the hurt he caused his son.
He reiterated that he was “disciplining his son” the way he was disciplined as a child. He also said he spoke with a child psychologist who told him there are alternative ways to discipline his 4-year-old son that may be more appropriate than beating him bloody.
I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child, I caused an injury that I never intended or thought would happen. I know that many people disagree with the way I disciplined my child. I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate.
The legacy of slavery is evident in Peterson’s statement as he credited child abuse with keeping him off the streets.
I have learned a lot and have had to reevaluate how I discipline my son going forward. But deep in my heart I have always believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost in the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and other relatives. I have always believed that the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man. I love my son and I will continue to become a better parent and learn from any mistakes I ever make.
But one writer for The Grio.com wrote: “As a black father with a four-year old son, I cannot imagine ever beating my beautiful child. I cannot and will not treat my son like a slave.”
“We all cringe with horror, perhaps even cry, when we view depictions of brutality in films such as 12 Years a Slave. It feels far too familiar, too close to home. If we recoil at the sight of slaves being beaten, then why would we subject our own children to the same treatment?”
More from Sandrarose.com:
Photos: Twitter.com
Slaves? Really? This was a spanking that went too far, that’s all.
WEll..
dif strokes for di folks.
They say discipline
Some say Beat
I think we have bencome desensitizatied to a lot of things. The situation will be wrong if there were marks or not just depending on whose social or policital platform the story fits. If the child grows up to be a robber they will blame the father for not discplining him or vice versa. We are doomed as a society because everything is either right or wrong depending on whom it benefits. Our kids can be taught to be boys when they were born girls and girls when they born boys but parents cannot spank. The world is dumb…. and before anyone says one has nothing to do with the other lets just agree that the world has not morals or principles anymore only dollars and cents.
In other words phuck your niggah babies we don’t care if you kill them, George Zimmerman kills them or the local cop cause niggahs don’t matter – that’s all i’m hearing between the Janay incident and now this…. if some white kid showed up with those marks from a beating I’m prtty sure the media would demand castration of the abuser…. but little black kids don’t matter… they’re expendable…
Ray Rice shouldn’t any issue getting his job back then.
This is going to be terrible.
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it sure is. “they” finna make the organization eat those words like baby peterson had to eat those branches. then they will say oh we didnt realize it was ALLLLLL of that.
I can’t wait to get home and read about this on ESPN because all of these emotional female responses are getting on my nerves. Yes, he spanked his child with a switch and yes he went overboard. But people are acting like this man created switches. MANY people use the switch to discipline their children. It is not the anomaly that people are pretending it is.
The man has been forced to stop that mode of discipline by the public. He’s going to have to find another way now. He has no choice. Shouldn’t be happy about that? At least he makes an attempt to father all of his children.
So who watching LHHH with me tonight if you didn’t already see it?
@OpinionHated,
Hasn’T GUCCI Bean Sentenced? i just read he was sentenced to three yrs
Ohh chile.
He beat that baby. And if i’m that babies mama we going staright to court. Keep your checks. I will keep my chile alive..with me. :stop:
Couldve split his head to the white meat. He did split his body to the white meat.
Couldve died trying run away from him. Oh thats right they got the whooping room right? Lawd I hope that was a lie. 
when we view depictions of brutality in films such as 12 Years a Slave
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is kinda being unfair to this movie though. PLENTY of other movies with graphic scenes to single THIS one movie out. IJS
Im out
they got the whooping room right? Lawd I hope that was a lie.
~~~~~
If it’s a lie they baby told it
Bird he forced fed him leaves.
Emotional is how everybody should be. 
Im sorryI have gotten a whooping with a switch and the chit hurts but you know they never managed to break my fukking skin.At least he makes an attempt to father all of his children.
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anytime I hear someone use the term “at least” I already know its because they have resigned themselves to doing or expecting the bare minimum. they dont let themselves be great. that sentence came off like something the man with 34 kids on Iyanla would say.
“at least I do a little bit” yeah nigga, but you dont do a lot of bit.
sorry ass. #EndTangent
If it’s a lie they baby told it
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Well maybe thats why this one got his ass beat? They all some liars I guess. Like User said all the ppl aint wrong all the time.
But all the chirren wrong. Daddy peterson is a regular Saint. 
There were two brothers who’s father was a preacher, well known preacher in NOLA. Their mother was a volunteer at the school, took them to basketball, football, track practice. Both parents were at their games, they ate dinner together nightly, lavish b-day parties and vacations, all very active in the city…both brothers are in prison, doing life. Rarely as children did they get spankings for misbehaving. Instead the parents took their toys, tvs, no company, no phones, no cars, no nothing. Meanwhile, their cousins, raised by a single parent (it was six of them) daddy and Uncle daddies running in and out of her house, raised SIX COLLEGE GRADUATES. Whom she daily fcked up physically. This was harsh for a four year old, but the Bible says, spare the rod, spoil the child. Just my two pennies worth.
and if they let him play, they should let Ray Rice, Ochocinco and Terrell Owens all back on the field.
Hasn’T GUCCI Bean Sentenced? i just read he was sentenced to three yrs
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i thought so too. Then I heard he got a slight reduction..like maybe a few months early release.
@BIRD
“I can’t wait to get home and read about this on ESPN because all of these emotional female responses are getting on my nerves. Yes, he spanked his child with a switch and yes he went overboard. But people are acting like this man created switches. MANY people use the switch to discipline their children. It is not the anomaly that people are pretending it is.
The man has been forced to stop that mode of discipline by the public. He’s going to have to find another way now. He has no choice. Shouldn’t be happy about that? At least he makes an attempt to father all of his children.”
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Yeah. These ladies just love the kids.
HE BEAT this child twice, (two times One,two) in the same day!
THAT
IS
ABUSE.
Chile puhleeze
A whipping room?? No sir
Stands by my initial
@OTB i replied to u down below about the Raw papers, i shall post it here
@Jackson, i have only smoked twice since yesterday girl:hahaha: …they are wearing me out my last one was gooddddd tho. nice and tight and slow burning. the process is just…:no: i cant wait til im da shyt at it
but i will make u a vid when im the shyt bew
Sandra Rose I laughed so hard at the past article… I had no idea that Mrs. “raymond” was such a fan of your blog….
Shewwwww can that other Ray play? The one who didnt even pull the rtigger on his baby mama?
He didnt even lift a finger and he went to jail. But I guess you gotta manage to die to matter. 
These ladies just love the kids.
~~~~
Somebody has to, with brutes walking around thinking the 50s is the new millennium.
I have gotten a whooping with a switch and the chit hurts but you know they never managed to break my fukking skin.
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same here… but i was much older (than 4) and bigger (almost bigger than my Ma), and it was always my Mom – NEVER my dad (who was not a professional athlete).
<<<member of the "Beat-a-kid-Azz" Gang.
Many ppl will die today behind some ISIS pure Dee foolishness.
Its STILL not the norm. It will not become the norm with the world watching. Guess what NFL and all other super rich super public ppl, world’s watching. 
And whooping with a switch may be the norm in the ghetto that yall lament in one breathe and stand behind in the next but it is not the norm country wide.
That nicca beat the sh!t out of that little boy. I WISH A MUTHAFUGGER WOULD BEAT MY KID LIKE THAT
He would be on supervised visits like Meka 
@MISTAKEN
Can u change that graive mayne?
And if yalls parents beat yall like that as a child then yall were victims of child abuse
Upon agreement of term sheet for new drug policy, these players will be reinstated: Broncos WR Wes Welker, Rams WR Steadman Bailey, Cowboys DB Orlando Scandrick, Giants OL Eric Herman and former Vikings DE Spencer Nealy.
WRs Josh Gordon and former Colt LaVon Brazill will have their season-long suspensions reduced to 10 games.
Gordon continues to be allowed to work out at the Browns’ training facility.
VDot says:
And if yalls parents beat yall like that as a child then yall were victims of child abuse
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Spare the rod, don’t mean exactly a rod. SpAre discipline, spoil a child. What about all the kids who did get whooped and doing life, in a gang, etc. just like judge not ye be judged not don’t mean what some people think it mean. I’m all for swats, but that was unacceptable for a four year old. The reason even worse. Is he favoring. Kids play rough. He’ll would freeze over before my child went back over there.
If I beat a stranger with a stick the way he beat that child I get a battery charge with a weapons charge attached (the twig)….. Only crazy old school west indians think beatings like this are good – I used to watch my uncle beat the brakes off my cousin – guess what she crazy as tameka raymond now… spanking all for them beating your kids like they strangers is unacceptable… marks = abuse.
Hard truth.
Lots of abused ppl. APete ppl somewhere like 
VDot says:
And if yalls parents beat yall like that as a child then yall were victims of child abuse
~~~~
Absolutely, and my siblings and I were, Ive told on her b4 ive had a beating with an extension cord
It wasnt and Isnt Right.
It’s terrible, I do believe this is one of the things that’s wrong with my oldest sister, mayne she aint right
a whipping room????? For serious?????
@Hershey,
I hear what you’re saying, but it is a difference between discipline and beating. Any time a parent busts their child’s scrotal sack, that is a beating. I will speak for myself when saying I believe there are other more effective ways to discipline your child. If you do use corporal punishment, don’t do it out of anger and maybe use it as a last resort. Not tryna tell anyone how to raise their kids, i am speaking as the recipient of many spankings. Mannie, mannie spankings.
yeezy said he ain’t apologizing cuz he the victim…. #WheelChairStories
You told Harpo to beat me.
That is all I have for this post and the NFL.
SMDH
my Mom – NEVER my dad (who was not a professional athlete).
____________
I didn’t really get whoopings. I was an angel child
But my sister? She got more 
by my mama. My mama would threaten us with my daddy but he only whooped us once with a belt. We deserved it that one time too 
I ain’t come out with a bruise either. AND my sister is super light/fair skinned and she didn’t have any bruises either 
<– you know people try to make the they only bruise because they're light skinned argument
Is he favoring
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I wonder if he have all that rage for all the kids.
According to police reports, the child, however, had a slightly different story, telling authorities that “Daddy Peterson hit me on my face.” The child also expressed worry that Peterson would punch him in the face if the child reported the incident to authorities. He also said that he had been hit by a belt and that “there are a lot of belts in Daddy’s closet.” He added that Peterson put leaves in his mouth when he was being hit with the switch while his pants were down. The child told his mother that Peterson “likes belts and switches” and “has a whooping room.”
After the child returned home to Minnesota in late May, the mother took the son to his previously scheduled doctor appointment and the doctor that examined the child said the injuries were consistent with child abuse and that it appeared the child had injuries from one incident involving a “switch” and another incident possibly involving a cord.
Like I said before, if I was this little boy momma, the court would have to make me send the child back. And I would be fighting that. Unless its supervised, he would NOT be going. 40 lashes for a damn four year old!? And some of y’all can’t see how freaking messed up that is!? Yeah OK.
I hear what you’re saying, but it is a difference between discipline and beating.
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This sort of stuff goes over their head.
It’s business AP one of the best players in the game Ray Rice is not
@Shake it aint just you though…years of thought has gone into this. Ppl arent just deciding that there are more effective ways to discipline. Mind you some of us can take a licking and keep on kicking! You could beat my brother ass all you wanted to. They did and guess what?! It aint work! He still aint chit. Old as dirt. Aint chit!
“I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate” <— Adrian's "words".
How did it take a psych to tell you that?
Okalahoma aint got no child development courses? Oh wait I forgot he can run a ball. Somebody took his courses for him. Shame. 
Unshakable says:
@Hershey,
I hear what you’re saying, but it is a difference between discipline and beating. Any time a parent busts their child’s scrotal sack, that is a beating. I will speak for myself when saying I believe there are other more effective ways to discipline your child. If you do use corporal punishment, don’t do it out of anger and maybe use it as a last resort. Not tryna tell anyone how to raise their kids, i am speaking as the recipient of many spankings. Mannie, mannie spankings.
_________________________
I haven’t read that he busted his scrotum
wow. The pics are horrible, and I don’t believe this child did anything so bad at age four that warranted lashes like this. But the NFL says keep, we need him more than he needs to be a good and just father 
@AL BOY
“It’s business AP one of the best players in the game Ray Rice is not”
________________
All true.
If AP sucked, they woulda cut him immediately.
i am speaking as the recipient of many spankings. Mannie, mannie spankings.
_________________________________
i can say for myself and my siblings, we was some ‘bad’ arse chirren
This bout to have major consequences for AP and the NFL what they thinking it’s like they the new NCAA
This bout to have major consequences for AP and the NFL what they thinking it’s like they the new NCAA
_______________________
Nothing could be worse. The NCAA might be the worst organization in the United States.
A whopping room nuts getting spanked mistake or not come on Mayne y’all right this ain’t his 24/7 son cant be
What changed from saturday night to today? Sat the Vikings suspended, No new developments.
Today reinstated No New developments, OHHHHHHHH the HUGE Loss to the Patriots!
I was an angel child
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slaps the taste outcho mouf for lying!
j/k 
Oh and for err body that left me downstairs I hope you get the same gum disease as Jill woodgrain gum Scott. And Whoopi black jelly bean gum Goldberg
@LUVN
“What changed from saturday night to today? Sat the Vikings suspended, No new developments.
Today reinstated No New developments, OHHHHHHHH the HUGE Loss to the Patriots!”
____________
They gotta “showcase” him for a trade. Prolly goin give him the ball 40 times this Sunday.
“Daddy Peterson”
__________________
“Daddy Peterson”
__________________
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Might have to call multiple men “Daddy.”
The Same folks wanting Rice head, the same who gave no problem with dude switching a defenseless child.
Prolly goin give him the ball 40 times this Sunday.
~~~
Masters way of thinking for Sure!
They said AP makes all his kids call him daddy Peterson… unique
OutsidetheBox says:
Bird he forced fed him leaves.
***********************
Wait. What? I ain’t heard tell of that. Who say dat?
Now listen, I don’t beleive in spanking myself. Not even a whack with the hand, but I know many many many people that do. My only point is, stop acting like this man invented the shat. Lil man got one nem “Don’t make me get yo daddy” James Evans whoopins. I was tempted to tell white folk to watch Good Times so they can stop demonizing this man. I’m happy if he learns new methods. And not those white folk method of letting their kids cuss them out either. Yeah, they kids go to college more than ours but they elders go to the nursing home more than ours too.
@Nancy,
Chile you and me were on a similar trajectory. Spankings became so commonplace, i thought something was wrong if i didn’t get.one. i be lookin like
i ain’t gettin no spanking tuhday? I mean throw off my whole childhood schedule for the day. 
Said he took the leaves off the switch and forced them in his mouth
my dad did stuff like that he was on crack… AP you know Leon nem 
@Shake! no lie, during summer break, it was almost everyday. we had a regular line-up, and ‘plays’
one sister would start crying and praying out loud, one would always try to run, and i would try the ‘path of least resistance’ but sometimes i’d get a good church run going my own self
then she’ll be tryna give us ice-cream later on like 
i know my Mom wasn’t “committed” to the spankings though, cause you might catch her sitting at the table afterwords like