Posted on 03/15/2011 4:26:48 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo
Just when you thought the rancor between the NFL and players had peaked, along comes Adrian Peterson.
In a wide-ranging interview with Yahoo! Sports, the star Minnesota Vikings running back compared the league's labor situation to slavery.
"It's modern-day slavery, you know?" Peterson said. "People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money ... the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money."
Peterson's remarks were later removed from the Yahoo! Sports post. The interviewer, Doug Farrar, said he believed that Peterson did not literally mean to compare the NFL's contentious labor dispute with the institution of slavery.
"I want to give him the opportunity to provide context as opposed to just running with it," Farrar tweeted.
At least one NFL player took issue with Peterson's analogy. Ryan Grant of the Packers tweeted that he "totally" disagreed with the comments, adding that there is "actually still slavery existing in our world.. Literal modern day slavery.. That was a very misinformed statement."
"But I understand what point he was trying to make," Grant tweeted. "I just feel like he should have been advised a little differently."
It's worth noting Peterson was interviewed just 15 minutes after the union filed papers to decertify so emotions were running high - and words were coming out unfiltered. In fact, when discussing the hot-button topic, the player seemed to realize he should push the self-edit button mid-sentence:
"All some people see is, 'Oh, we're not going to be around football.' But how the players look at it ... the players are getting robbed. They are. The owners are making so much money off of us to begin with. I don't know that I want to quote myself on that..."
I think if the players keep talking, there will be some pushback in their popularity that they havent felt before. And aside from money, popularity is what these guys crave.
It’s nice to watch people play a sport because they enjoy playing, not for the big bucks, the fancy cars, houses, stadiums and so on.
Yah, except for the fact he is paid millions, can quit anytime he wants, has numerous contractual protections, lives in a mansion, “works” in first class facilities, flies around the country first class, eats only the finest food and sleeps in luxury every night, it’s almost exactly like slavery!
Sometimes is just best to think about what you are about to say before you say it.
He can always get a job pushing fries at McDonalds.
he’s right - it is. There are obviously not enough caucasian players on the teams - integrate the NFL!
Ralph Wilson Stadium-It’s better than something like Aflac Field!
I love listening to the NFL Sirius station. For the most part, the hosts catch inconsistencies in the callers’ points. But one they missed today was when a caller said the workers are also the product, which makes it different than other businesses. But I dont see it that way. The teams and the games are the products. IF we had completely different players, people would still watch the Cowboys vs Redskins.
Thank you Ryan Grant.
Figured this was some ignorant black guy.
He should read some history and find out it was blacks who sold his ancestors into slavery. It was some of his fellow black ancestors who were slave owners and slave breeders in this country.
Hey Adrian, if you don’t like it, you’re not a slave, you can walk away any time you want. There are many organizations like American Express, Merrill Lynch, Fannie Mae and TIAA-CREF who need token blacks as CEOs. If that’s above your pay grade the Obama administration is giving away 100K+ a year jobs to folks with no credentials.
So that’s why Detroit stinks so much - it’s just a quick drive in the Bentley to freedom from NFL slavery.
There he can play in the Canadian Football League. “Free at Last!”
Bring on the non union players, I loved it last time. My Green Bay Packers did real Good the last time these over paid players got locked out!
The Packers only netted 7 million dollars last year, quite a few players made more than that.
Massa just set you free moron.
How insulting to those who are truly in slavery.
What an idiot.
You shouldn’t show pictures of the NFL players “cribs/slaveshacks”, it might put the USA on the UN’s watch list for promoting human rights.
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