Before two weeks ago I would have bet my life savings on Adrian Peterson still beating his kid. There was no way he didn’t still do that. Despite all the outrage when the news hit, Peterson seemed to be genuinely baffled and confused that people reacted so harshly. He didn’t feel caught. He didn’t seem like people found him out. He seemed to genuinely not understand why people were mad. It was clear that Peterson simply never saw his form of discipline as a negative. It was simply what you did. So despite suffering a notable suspension and tons of public backlash over whipping his child’s scrotum bloody, I didn’t expect him to change. Not meaningfully.

He grew up in an environment where beating your kid is still acceptable. There are a lot of people who still think this is an effective and not barbaric form of discipline. He probably saw his suspension as bullshit nonsense, the same way a dumb kid on Youtube might casually use racial slurs or other hate speech and then complain at all “The SJWs” who were bothered by it of looking at themselves and considering maybe there is some personal responsibility there and some introspection needed.

But I never thought that after all that happened, he’d be dumb enough to just straight up admit he still whips his kids. Peterson spent a full year on suspension and lost almost all his public goodwill after those pictures came out. His career after that moment was basically a shell of itself that felt gross to touch until he finally managed to find some glory again just this year. After years of being a former great but another bad person that people felt ashamed they rooted for, people were finally back to liking him. Maybe he still thinks such physical discipline is okay, but you’d think a man who’d suffered such a hit to his career and standing would have enough goddamn brain cells to not admit he still does it. Lie! Tell a soft half truth that you more carefully consider your punishments now! Talk about how you are still firm but do your best to not physically harm your child! Don’t say you avoid using the switch 9 times out of 10. THAT MEANS YOU STILL USE IT AND EVERYONE KNOWS, YA MORON. How is he so dumb? (Insert CTE joke here)

I don’t know if anything will come out of this. It would be an easy sell for the NFL to just punish him again. The Skins are using him for a year rental anyway while Derrius Guice rehabs. Stick him out to dry for being a dipshit, let his late career resurgence die, move on to cooler new dudes like Alvin Kamara and Saqoun. But 2014 was a very different news climate than 2018, and what counted for outrage back then seems almost delightfully quaint now. Remember when the biggest political debate in football was the Skins racist name? Nobody even bothers to bring that up anymore because of how small potatoes it seems in the new world we inhabit. Outrage and scandal cycles out at an alarming rate and I’m probably already too late to comment on this as the story has probably already moved on. I’d like to see something happen, even if it is just a fine.

Make it a fine for being a big dumb idiot if nothing else.

 

EDIT: THIS IS THE WED COMIC I FINISHED IT EARLY AND SCHEDULED IT WRONG MAYBE I WAS THE IDIOT ALL ALONG