Off the Grid- I'm not telling you how to raise your kid. I'm telling you not to strike them. Period

Lovely. Just Lovely. Apparently the most dangerous men in the NFL are running backs who wear purple. (That's the only joke I'll be making in this column, so if you're looking for a laugh, best to stop reading here.) I was really hoping to get off of the societal problems and get down to some serious football related snark and punditry, but apparently the universe has different plans that do not include me writing about football as a distraction from modern life. As such- I've decided to work in a new segment for more serious issues. I'm calling it "Off the Grid" and will use this to separate the less savory and harder to swallow bits of following the NFL. Sports have always been a microcosm of American society, and as such, can make us consider things we don't wish to consider on a daily basis. The NFL, for whatever reason, seems specifically to be magnifying our societal problems and bringing them to the forefront in a forceful way which demands contemplation and conversation. I'm not so sure that this is a bad thing, if it leads to more widespread understanding of the problems at hand, whether it's racism (Riley Cooper), domestic violence (Terrel Suggs, Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald, Johnathan Dwyer)or now, this week, child abuse (Adrian Peterson). The thing for us all to remember here is that the lessons learned and the outrage we feel shouldn't end with the punishment of a player by the league and must not be limited to situations where a camera phone captured a video. These are everyday problems, they need attention in our communities, not just in a league where grown men play a children's game for millions of dollars. Adrian Peterson, the best running back in the NFL and a hero to many for his very impressive return from catastrophic knee injury, is a child abuser. Somehow, the laws of our country allow for physical abuse, spanking, corporal punishment, whatever you choose to call it, up to a point (they shouldn't)leaving a vast grey area for abuse and horrific injuries to children. As for Adrian Peterson, in light of his indictment on charges related to endangerment and child abuse for allegedly whipping his four year old son with a "switch", leaving bloody marks and welts on the child's legs, buttocks and scrotum, the Vikings suspended Peterson for Sunday's game against the Patriots, but have since reinstated him, only to place him on paid leave pending his legal situation. He could very well be in jail for several years for his "mistake" or "overly enthusiastic discipline", but let's be clear about what he did. Physically injuring your child isn't discipline and it isn't a parenting choice. It's lashing out violently against a defenseless child who you are meant to protect because you are frustrated with their behavior. Earlier this week, a second case against Peterson, this time relating to a different child, with a different mother, has surfaced. This incident left the child scarred on his face because he "wouldn't sit still and take his whupping" resulting in him being struck in the face. Still think Peterson is a good person, worthy of your hero worship who was simply disciplining his child as he saw fit, a child who deserved it for acting up? What could that four year old boy possibly have done to deserve a bloody wound on his scrotum? I don't care if he burnt down Adrian Peterson's house and then peed on his father for good measure, whipping your child with a stick, belt or even your hand isn't a "parenting choice". Sorry. It's not. It's shameful, and it's child abuse. If you couldn't do it to a dog or a grown person in public, you can't do it to your child. I don't care if you consider it a private family matter. I'm sorry to those of you who sympathize with Peterson's religious southern upbringing and hear something familiar in his tales from his childhood. I don't care how you were raised, or if your parents somehow convinced you that it was for the best when they hit you, either with their hands, a belt or a stick. It didn't make you a better person. It didn't make you stronger. More importantly, you didn't deserve it. I know, America, that this is a hard pill to swallow, because you probably still love your parents who spanked you, hit you with a belt or whipped you with a switch, but if a child is hurt and/or bleeding at the hands of those who are supposed to protect them, that is child abuse, plain and simple. If you think that you have the right to physically hurt your child because that's what your parents did, or because the bible says it's OK, then I'm sorry, but you too are an abuser. We need to all consider very strongly how we choose to raise subsequent generations, and the mistakes of our parents generation and all the generations before them need not be repeated by ourselves. As for Minnesota, kudos for taking a step back and suspending AP with pay until all of this is resolved, though the idea of a child abuser making over eleven million dollars to NOT play football this year makes us all a little sick inside.