The Slaughterhouse of professional sports

The circumstances surrounding Adrian Peterson’s abusive behavior toward his four-year-old son and his subsequent suspension from the NFL raise some delicate issues that are not being adequately addressed by the media. 

At issue are child abuse, racism, the power of public opinion, and the hypocrisy of professional sports in America.

What Peterson did to his son was clearly wrong and he was tried and convicted in a court of law.  That should have been the end of it.  But more punishment was inevitable in today’s world where sports teams and their governing bodies hypocritically preach high ideals from moral soap boxes to pacify public opinion, thereby safeguarding ratings and ticket sales.  Are executives from America’s top corporations held to such standards in a public forum?  Rarely are their transgressions even brought to light.

We can’t lose sight of the fact that there are two worlds in America: The haves and have nots.  Of course, the money behind professional sports lives in the former and the commodity in which they trade largely comes from the latter.  You cannot so easily apply what is expected in one community to the other, at least not without sensitivity, compassion and understanding of the differences.

Growing up poor and black is tough and often violent, and Peterson’s life is no exception.  At age 7, Peterson witnessed his 9-year-old brother’s killing by a drunk driver.  His father, Nelson, spent nearly seven years in prison for laundering money from selling crack cocaine.  His half brother was shot and killed in Houston the night before Peterson attended the NFL combine in 2007.  And last October, Tyrese Ruffin, his 2-year-old illegitimate son whom he recently became aware, was killed in Sioux Falls, S.D. allegedly by the boyfriend of Ruffin’s mother.

The violence and tragedy in these neighborhoods often breed very good football players and the sport exploits violent tendencies.  You cannot take a young man out of a violent community, encourage him to be violent on a football field, and expect him to go home and behave like a saint.  It doesn’t work that way. 

America's attitude toward corporal punishment has changed a great deal in a generation.  What I endured 50's years ago for misbehavior at home and school would be considered abhorrent and criminal today.  But change is sometimes slow to spread to some communities.  Although we cannot condone such horrific behavior, we have to be cognizant of these differences when rendering justice.

The NFL power brokers don’t live in Peterson’s childhood world nor do they make a genuine effort to understand it.  What drives them is money and Adrian Peterson is the sacrificial lamb du jour.  Young black men serve as the meat that nourishes a highly profitable industry akin to a slaughterhouse where unsavory parts are discarded.

If the NFL is going to expect certain behaviors of its players it needs to invest heavily in changing the communities that provide the sport’s prized commodity.  The league does offer youth programs like Play60, but they are fitness and sports related.  With all the money associated with the NFL and other professional sports why is there no comprehensive, meaningful, sustainable endowment to help lift the quality of life in these neighborhoods?

We also cannot lose sight of the fact that professional athletes are typically very young and immature.  We tend to judge them by standards they find difficult, even impossible,  to meet. 

Since justice has already been meted out, it seems extreme for the NFL to pile on more punishment and deprive this young man of the few years left in his career.