A Minnesota senator said Sunday that she may be a huge Minnesota Vikings fan, but word that running back Adrian Peterson has been indicted on child abuse charges has made it all the more important for the NFL to handle criminal charges with a sense of urgency.
“This is a 4-year-old child. This is a very serious accusation,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat and former prosecutor, told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
The charges against Mr. Peterson came after he allegedly disciplined his son last May in Texas with a small branch, or “switch,” that caused cuts on various parts of his body, according to news reports.
The senator said the Vikings did the right thing by keeping Mr. Peterson out of Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots.
However, she said the NFL fell short in serving as a role model for young fans when it gave Baltimore Ravens running back a mere two-game suspension for knocking his fiancee “out cold” in the elevator of an Atlantic City hotel earlier this year.
The team cut him and he was suspended indefinitely by the league after TMZ released footage of the incident.
“I think that’s problematic for the NFL and deeply concerning about how they handle these kinds of cases. … They can make a real difference here by putting in place proper policies,” Ms. Klobuchar told CNN.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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