I want to believe Adrian Peterson, but you have to wonder is he just saying this for good PR or because he really understands beating a 4-year-old in the groin while stuffing leaves in his mouth is wrong.
I don’t have the answer to that, only Peterson knows deep down if he has truly changed or not. Here is what he had to say in an exclusive interview with USA Today.
“I won’t ever use a switch again,” Peterson said. “There’s different situations where a child needs to be disciplined as far as timeout, taking their toys away, making them take a nap. There’s so many different ways to discipline your kids.”
“No one knows how I felt when I turned my child around after spanking him and seeing what I had left on his leg,” Peterson said. “No one knows that Dad sat there and apologized to him, hugged him and told him that I didn’t mean to do this to you and how sorry I was.
“I love my son. I love my kids, my family. Like I said after I took the misdemeanor plea, I take full responsibility for my actions. I regret the situation. I love my son more than any one of you could even imagine.”
“You can look down on me and say, ‘You have six kids. You should not be at this, you should not be at that,’ ” Peterson said. “This is the cards I’ve been dealt based off my decisions. I make the best of it by spending time with my kids, any and every opportunity that I have.”
“I take full responsibility, because I spanked my child, and no matter what my intentions were, I end up leaving those marks on his legs,” Peterson said. “That’s the bottom line.
“That’s not what I tried to do, but that’s what ended up happening. Don’t put me in the same (category as Rice).”
Peterson goes on to talk about how the person who leaked his son photos should be arrested, how Roger Goodell isn’t treating him fairly and coming back to the Vikings.
It some ways you could say Peterson is worse than Ray Rice, but that is just depends on how you judge certain abusers. Time will only tell if Peterson has truly learned his lesson or if he is just saying what needs to be said to get public opinion on his side.
