In the last three days, All-Pro running back Adrian Peterson has been indicted and booked into a Texas jail on child abuse charges, released — by the jail and his team — only to be reinstated by Vikings. Now, it appears he’s facing child abuse accusations from another incident via a separate child from a different mother.
KHOU is reporting that Peterson beat another one of his four-year-olds in June, prompting the mother to contact Child Protective Services. Charges were never filed, but the beating supposedly left a scar on the child’s face. The “whooppin” was reportedly in response to the child cussing at a sibling.
Deadspin has the KHOU report here. The station was able to gather text messages from the incident, some which read like this:
Mother: “What happened to his head?”
Peterson: “Hit his head on the Carseat.”
Mother: “How does that happen, he got a whoopin in the car.”
Peterson: “Yep.”
Mother: “Why?”
Peterson: “I felt so bad. But he did it his self.”
This is incredibly damaging for not only the running back, but for the Minnesota Vikings as well, who are doing everything they can to keep him in a uniform this season. In light of the Ray Rice scandal, in which he was suspended for the rest of the season for hitting his fiancee, a guilty plea in a child abuse case would not only likely land Peterson in jail, but a very lengthy suspension from the NFL as well.
Reports have implied that Peterson feels he has done no wrong and that he was simply disciplining his child.
Pictures have surfaced since Saturday’s arrest, showing the result of Peterson’s beating of his other four-year-old with a ‘switch.’ Take a look for yourself and decide whether it’s abuse or not.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.
Photo Credit: Getty
