[SiteWolf]

I have to say...I don't get irritated easy, but this has irritated me greatly.

rant

It's long past an issue of whether Adrian did anything wrong. He did, but NOTHING to the extent some people talk like. Here's a guy almost EVERYone (including those now calling him scum) felt had been one of the most humble superstars in pro sports, a guy who has seen more tragedy in his life than most, from watching his brother get killed right in front of him by a car while they played when he was 8, to finding out another brother was murdered while he was training for the NFL combine, in between seeing his father go to prison....to most recently finding out a son he hadn't even known about was murdered. He wins the MVP after rushing for over 2000 yards the year after blowing out his knee and is considered possibly the best in the league and one of the best ever.

Then it comes out that he got a bit carried away disciplining his child, a child who hadn't had a regular father figure in his life, a child who was attempting to smother his brother at the time Adrian disciplined him (which the media conveniently never brings up). Did he overstep? Of course, at least it appears so by those photos. But those photos were also released to the public by TMZ...you change the contrast on photos like that and those wounds appear worse than they were. Even if you want to believe they were exactly what they appeared, the media continually tries to make them sound even worse....and it was illegal that we even saw them at ALL...a law written not to protect the accused, but to protect the child.

However NONE of that really has been the issue during this appeal process. This process has been about labor law and the mutually agreed upon collective bargaining agreement. At the time of the incident, the penalty for what Adrian did, according to the result of his trial, warranted a 2 game penalty. Two. A recorded conversation with Troy Vincent telling Adrian 'time served' would be considered....a conversation that was ignored followed by Vincent lashing out at the union about not caring about the victims when that has nothing to do with the appeal.

And my 'favorite' part....the independent arbitrator assigned to the appeal is a former league executive...like he was going to be unbiased. Since the hearing ended, however, he was suggesting there be a settlement and inferred it was the league that should want that, yet when they didn't he still fully sided with them.

The result being the Vikings get to have paid him not just during his time on the exempt list, but also the past 3 weeks since the original punishment came down when somehow he was left on the exempt list until the appeal process completed, and the league, even tho they have continually considered 'time served' at least during an appeal process, will not in this case.

So as of the moment, he will not only miss the entire 2014 season, but since the league is saying his 6 game suspension only starts this week, he'll also miss the 1st 3 games of 2015 as well.....and the league believes they can not only do that but not even talk about reinstatement until a month into the free agency period.

And people talk like his talk of retiring is a 'threat' and talk of a law suit is bogus. Unless there is more language giving the league more wiggle room than has ever been discussed in prior cases, the league is greatly overstepping legally agreed upon policy on how these labor situations should be resolved...and the league is attempting to make the union appear unsympathetic towards victims of abuse to push it through.

Yes, I'm a Vikings fan. Yes, Adrian has been one of my favorite players ever. So yes, I'm not unbiased either. But punishing Adrian FAR more than ANY other player has been punished...for something a large percentage of people understand happened with no malicious intent whatsoever, contrary to what someone like Ray Rice did....is simply ridiculous. Anything Adrian attempts to do legally will be put out there as 'a further act lacking contrition' even tho he has apologized for what he did more than once. What more can the guy actually do? Regardless of what he does now, the media and many fans will find fault with it. And if he retires? There will be many who will say 'good riddance'....to one of the best running backs and (whether you choose to believe this or not) one of the nicest guys in pro sports.

/rant