Adrian Peterson suspended: Why NFL dropped hammer on the Vikings star

Several things are clear, in a post Ray Rice NFL, after the NFL suspended Adrian Peterson at least through April 15 for his child abuse case (pending NFLPA appeal). The league, having fallen so far out of step with society in its seeming tolerance for domestic abuse cases, with Rice originally getting just two games, is now, if anything, going to err on the other side of that pendulum, coming much closer to no-tolerance for these actions.

And Roger Goodell's sternly written letter, admonishing Peterson for his lack of 'remorse,' the detail by which he explains just how closely Peterson will be monitored and what all he must do to get reinstated - whether by April 15, or later - and his statement that any further slip ups could result in him being 'banished' from the league, effectively puts the Vikings, or any of Peterson's other future employers, on notice that buyer beware.

Peterson is damaged goods.

His days of record contracts and being one of the two or three prominent faces of the league, and of widespread sponsorships are over. At least for quite some time. Probably for good.

Adrian Peterson's Vikings days are done

The end game here has always looked like Peterson - the face of the franchise to the team and sponsors - was not going to make $13 million to play in Minnesota next season, regardless of any further NFL discipline. This ruling - no matter what is said on appeal - further cements that. Someone will sign him in 2015 - I don't see him being back with the Vikings, however - but with so much hanging over him, he'll have to earn that money, over time, on the field and off. The big guaranteed money won't be there. Nor will the massive base salaries.

For while the Vikings said absolutely nothing on the matter, and ownership remains silent outside of a two sentence statement saying the 'respect' the league's decision, it actually spoke volumes. They got the message, loud and clear. They aren't going to buck the system. They went along with paying Peterson a full game check each week knowing he might never be allowed to play this season, and they aren't going to break their silence now. They're playing the league's game. To think they'll bring him back next year, making twice than what all but one running back in the NFL is earning in 2015 ( LeSean McCoy) seems quite naïve.

Significance of April 15, 2015

Running backs don't make that kind of money anymore even without this kind of baggage. And, by setting a date for potential reinstatement closer to the draft than free agency - well after teams have spent the bulk of their 2015 spending budgets - the NFL has further guaranteed that Peterson will be playing for far less than what he was previously scheduled to earn on the duration of his current deal. That timing, April 15, is hardly random itself.

The days of this guy being, far and away, the highest paid running back in the history of the NFL are over. The NFL made a point to stress how Peterson did not take this situation seriously enough, which will resonate loud and clear in front offices around the league. He's being held accountable for his public comments, for showing up to court and volunteering he had been smoking pot, for what the NFL perceived to be a lack of awareness, understanding and contrition for his actions, and how much he had jeopardized his ability to continue enjoying the spoils of his labor. (As I reported several weeks ago, people close to Peterson, and some in the Vikings' organization, were concerned about his lack of understanding and maturity in the face of these events, there were concerns about his mental and physical readiness to return to the football field, concerns about the substances he was putting in his body and a sense that he still, even through multiple court appearances and getting dropped by Nike, he didn't grasp the severity of his actions and the possible ramifications).

With all the drama and loss of sponsors and public outcry the Vikings have already faced, do you really think, with the team running the ball pretty well in Peterson's absence and with this process now set to drag well into the spring, they're going to keep $13 million aside to give to Peterson after all the time he's missed? And that they're going to do it at a point in the contract when they can extricate themselves from it without any lingering guaranteed money to pay out and with no cap hit to swallow? I find it quite hard to believe. Especially, with the potential he fails a drug test or runs astray of Goodell's wishes between now and then.

Short of this being overturned on appeal, it's over.

Role of the NFLPA and AP's lawyer

Adrian Peterson's lack of remorse played a role in his further suspension. (USATSI)

The money he's made while on the Exempt List ($700,000 a week or so), could be the last such paydays he ever receives. And while the NFLPA can dispute whether or not Peterson should have been immediately taken off that list upon his plea deal, the reality always was, in this current culture in the league, with Peterson never disputing the victim was his 4-year old son, Peterson was going to face additional penalties from the NFL. That's no shocker.

He didn't have to agree to it, and you could question the NFLPA and his lawyers for doing so, but even had he been allowed to return to work two weeks ago, it was only a matter of time that he was going to be disciplined, and that was in no way precluded by his agreement with the league, regardless of any interpretation. The leverage for the NFPLA came in the form of the CBA, where a team could only make Peterson inactive for four weeks in this case before having to reinstate Peterson to the active roster, or make a disciplinary ruling. They could have stuck to that principle, forced the NFL to discipline these players before their day in court, or allow them to play. Instead a deal was struck.

Once that was negotiated away, by agreeing for Peterson and Greg Hardy to be paid indefinitely on the Commissioner's Exempt List in exchange for full payment while on the Exempt List, the NFL now had the upper hand. Or at least was going to get it short of Peterson doing anything other than being found not guilty and fully exonerated. Having already admitted he caused those wounds that was going to be tricky.

The role of the NFL's Personal Conduct Policy

So Peterson took the NFL's deal and then a plea deal - get paid to stay away and then return as soon as he resolved the case - but it was never going to be his call in the end. There was too much photographic evidence and the timing, on the heels of Rice's situation, was always working against him. For all of his talk of fighting this until the end, he knew the risks involved in going to trial and having even more of this made public, and his lawyer made a calculated decision to take that deal, knowing the NFL could still impose further discipline under the Person Conduct Policy. And it did. Again, no surprise.

The NFLPA agreed to Article 46 in the CBA in the latest negotiations with the league ending the lockout, with Goodell still overseeing the Conduct Policy, and that has never changed. Sure, he has talked about changing that process in the future, and possibly by the Super Bowl, but there is no new Personal Conduct Committee established yet, this is all happening so close to the Rice elevator video debacle and those odious press conferences, and if you hadn't read the tea leaves - through the creation of the new domestic violence policy, etc. - that the NFL was going to be handling these kind of cases dramatically differently than it did in the past, then shame on you.

Per Article 46, Goodell has the right under the CBA to oversee any appeal of off-field discipline himself, or to appoint a designee. Might he consider someone like Paul Tagliabue or Harold Henderson to do so? It's possible a source said, but given that Peterson has to this point not met with Goodell himself on this matter, it's also quite possible Goodell oversees the appeal of this process himself. The league hasn't taken kindly it seems to Peterson not meeting with them last week, and, ultimately, what has been collective bargained gives Goodell - at least until there is a new board designated to oversee these cases - total control. It might change - certainly. For now it has not.

Goodell remains in the driver's seat

Goodell still has the hammer and in a case like this, where Radisson pulled out and corporations were falling all over themselves to chide the NFL in press releases and bask in the PR kudos they got for doing it, there wasn't going to be a docile reaction from the league in a matter involving a victim so young, and, as in the case of Rice, with there being such damning visual evidence in the public record, none of which was disputed by the accused.

Peterson was trying to argue intent, and not the facts, and accept a plea which came with the least offensive language, and which, obviously, might obfuscate some of what actually transpired. Agreeing to a misdemeanor assault, with a negligible fine and punishment, seems minor, but the preponderance of statements by Peterson to police, eventually obtained by the media, defending his actions, sounding somewhat cavalier about the wounds inflicted to the child's thighs and genitalia, none of that was ever going to sit well in the Court of the NFL (Post-Rice) which Goodell still presides over - especially not in a time like this when seemingly all of society lashed out at the commissioner for being, himself, too cavalier for his original handling of Rice's assault of his wife in an elevator.

So, no matter who ends up hearing the appeal, it's going to be at Goodell's behest. The process has not changed, yet. And if Peterson had not yet grasped the significance of any of this to this point, I suspect he will be shortly.