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Vikings’ Adrian Peterson Compares NFL Players’ Situation To “Modern-Day Slavery”

Most would agree NFL players generating more sympathy in the league’s labor battle than the owners, and it’s not hard to see why. Even if the players are rich, they’re less rich than the owners…not to mention they’re the ones putting their bodies on the line to play the games fans want to see.

But comments like the ones Vikings star running back Adrian Peterson made in a recent interview with Shutdown Corner’s Doug Farrar won’t help the players in the battle to win hearts and minds. In discussing the labor situation with Farrar, Peterson said the following:

“It’s modern-day slavery, you know? 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. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it’s how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, ‘Hey — without us, there’s no football.

Yeah, a guy making millions is probably not the best person to use that “slavery” word, no matter how much wealthier the owners are. That line will be the most-discussed part of the interview – rightfully so – but it’s too bad it’s going to obscure the other things Peterson said, because the rest of the block-quoted paragraph above is a rather reasonable take on the whole owners-players impasse.

Another interesting note: the reason we haven’t linked to the original interview yet – here it is – is because you’ll notice, if you peruse it, that the “slavery” line is nowhere to be found. Certainly, it was too late to keep people from finding out about it – in addition to the linked USA Today article, it got mentioned on SportsCenter. Farrar, though, later explained why the comment disappeared: he “want[ed] to give [Peterson] the opportunity to explain what he really meant.”

Credit goes to Farrar for explaining why he did what he did rather than pretending it never happened…and hopefully, he’s right that maybe there was something to Peterson’s comment other than what we saw. Because not only is it the kind of thing that could put off fans…it appeared it even put off at least one of Peterson’s fellow players.

We’d like to see Peterson provide some further explanation ourselves, because if he really meant that he and his fellow players are part of a system equivalent to “modern-day slavery” when the NFL features salary numbers like these…to quote a commercial you probably saw a whole bunch of times during NFL season, “Don’t be silly, Adrian Peterson.”

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