Behind Peterson's perfect image lay an imperfect human being

Adrian Peterson was the face of the Vikings and marketing magic, his brushes with the law and personal life ignored – until suddenly no one could look away.

With a new season, a new coach and a $1 billion stadium on the way, the Minnesota Vikings turned to their undisputed star last summer to appear on the team’s yearbook cover: Adrian Peterson, standing confidently in a dirty purple jersey.

In an accompanying interview, Peterson said it was easy being the public face of the Vikings because “I don’t really get into a lot of trouble.”

Just a few weeks later, he was indicted in Texas on charges of whipping his child, and now a Hall of Fame career has come to a jarring halt. Peterson is scheduled to make his first court appearance Wednesday, and he remains on a paid suspension from the Vikings until the case is resolved.

Mixed feelings here.

After the sensationalism of child abuse charges against the background of the NFL, the Star Tribune decided to put Peterson under a microscope. Where was the Star Tribune when all of this was happening?

The newspaper article mentions Peterson's father in prison, college 'Lexus lease', speeding ticket, multiple children, accusations of resisting arrest that never led to charges, “jersey chasers” at the Vikings' summer training camp (which didn't involve Peterson), and anything and everything juicy.

The most disturbing allegations in the article involve Peterson's All Day foundation. These include allegations that Peterson used the charity's credit card to pay for a seven-person orgy, which, just for your edification, led to a rape allegation that was not prosecuted.

Yes, that comment regarding Boomtown was odd. Growing up near Mankato, the Vikings training camp was no big deal to local girls. In my day The Albatross was the big bar near campus...pretty sure the “Jersey Chasers” never hooked up with actual Vikings players. The joke was that if a guy was big, black and at The ‘Tross he was going to get lucky. I only went there a couple of times, never during training camp and assumed that the guys who made an NFL salary weren’t going to be trolling at the local meat market for women.

AP was a bright star for fans just because he could play so well and, for the most part, wasn’t in the headlines like Randy Moss had been. I don’t think spanking or using a switch (though I don’t use one) is abuse. The stuffing leaves in a four year old’s mouth is what gets me. Even when my teens are mouthy I wouldn’t do that.

On the other hand, there is a generation of children who grow up in non-traditional homes (no dad living there) and have never been taught respect or self control. A relative is a head start teacher and in the past few years they have 3 & 4 year olds who tell the classroom teacher/aids, “Get the f*** out of my face b****” when reminded to share, follow the rules, etc. There is a culture, not necessarily defined by income, that we cannot even comprehend. Perhaps as an father who doesn’t live in the home he was doing his best to restore respect in the child to help the mother our, however misguided he may have been.

“In my day The Albatross was the big bar near campus...”

Ewww, I just got a slight cringe when I thought of the Albatross. I was down there in the early fall of ‘87 visiting a few people.e ended up at the Albatross.

I threw up (several times) in the parking lot. Got separated from my friends. I’m not sure how they found me but they did. I passed out on the floor. Woke up to one of my friends having sex with a woman he met at the bar.

God, I was sick the next day.

Excuse me, I’m gonna grab a couple of Advil. Just remembering the experience has given me a hangover...

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