Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Adrian Peterson is the Jacksonville Jaguars of Fathers

Adrian Peterson is a hell of a football player. But he's a shitty man. And a worse father.
In case you don't know (Mrs. Poop, Razor, Di10 perhaps), Adrian Peterson is the star running back for the Minnesota Vikings. He's one of the best players in football.
On Thursday his 2-year-old son was severely beaten, allegedly by the mother's new boyfriend. On Friday the child died. On Sunday Adrian Peterson played a football game.
Before during and after the game, writers who wanted to seem nice, praised Peterson for playing through his grief.
Only one problem: Peterson wasn't grieving.
The facts of the matter are likely something like this:
Nearly 3 years ago Peterson fucked a woman he probably never saw before or since.
That encounter led to a baby. It's not clear who, if anyone, knew for certain the baby's paternity. But Adrian Peterson didn't. It wasn't until 3 months ago that he found out the baby was his, that's when the baby's mama finally contacted him (maybe she didn't even know) and told him a paternity test for her boyfriend, the man she was presumably with at the time of her tryst with Peterson, came back negative.
Peterson had three months in which to arrange a visit from Minnesota to South Dakota (neighboring states) to see his child. He didn't. Why? He didn't care.
He didn't even see the baby for the first time until the child was on life support, being kept alive by machines.
That's why he thought nothing about playing in a football game two days after his nominal child died, in a horrible grisly fashion.
Please don't tell me about all the people who played after losing a parent or a sibling, or coaches who coached after grown children were killed. This is a small child, murdered in the most horrific way possible. The least he could have done was honor this child's memory by pretending to care enough about him to take a day off of work.
And I don't want to hear the crap about everyone grieving differently. He wasn't grieving. He has as much emotional connection to this child as you or I.
Any real parent who loves their children can tell you there is no way they would go to work, or play a game, or even leave their bedroom if this happened to their kid.
His callousness towards his own flesh and blood is disgusting enough, I just wish I didn't have to read about how great he is for being that way.

Note: Adrian Peterson has two other kids with two other women. He has a son named Adrian Jr. whom he actually seems to care about.

6 comments:

Reissberg said...

Wow. Just, wow.
What is your source for the claim that he never knew the kid?

Paul said...

TMZ is reporting. Click the link within my post.

juice said...

on point.....

Damino said...

Very interesting. I've been too busy to follow many news stories closely, but I had read about the child's horrific beating and murder and was hugely disgusted.

For what it's worth, the TMZ story itself portrays Peterson in a slightly more flattering light than does Paul, and notes that he dropped everything when he heard about the attack and immediately flew to see the boy. Also, Peterson apparently was the main person pushing for the boy's organs to be donated to help others in need, so he's not 100% bad in my book.

Of course, that doesn't change the fact that he likely didn't care about the boy much before this, and I entirely agree with Paul about Peterson's selfish and disinterested actions in playing on Sunday. If someone murdered my child, I wouldn't see the inside of a law office (my job) for many months, if ever. And I sure as hell wouldn't be at work a couple of days after the death.

Very thought provoking and insightful post Paul.

Paul said...

Damino, are you implying that I'm too harsh on Peterson, or just mention some of the mitigating factors in a feeble attempt to defend him as not being a total piece of shit?

Again, the fact that he played on Sunday is hardly the biggest piece of evidence against him. The irresponsibly having a child with a woman with whom he wasn't involved and making no effort to meet the child until he was almost dead are much worse to me than playing the football game.

Damino said...

No, I think your analysis is correct. I was just pointing out, fairly I think, that TMZ had spoken to multiple people who said Peterson was instrumental in getting the kid's organs donated, and I find that to be very good behavior among otherwise terrible conduct.

And I read that he apparently has another love child whom he doesn't see, but I'm not sure if that has been confirmed yet.