The NFL flip-flop-flippers

THE LATEST iteration of America's favorite reality show The NFL Has No Clothes is taking place in Minnesota, where the Vikings have flipped and flopped and now flipped again on whether to suspend star running back Adrian Peterson, who has been indicted on child-abuse charges. Given the dynamics of this story, it seemed to make sense for me to talk to former NFL player Walter Beach. Walter is more than just the former starting defensive back for the 1964 Cleveland Browns. He also worked as a child welfare case worker in New York City after the end of his playing days.

Walter said to me:

This is not about child abuse. This is not about child endangerment. This is not about whether what Adrian Peterson did rises to the level of what we would call "imminent danger," which is the standard we would use when assessing whether or not to take the child out of the home. That is an issue for the courts. For the NFL, this is about public relations. They aren't going to stop child abuse. They don't care about anything but the money. It's hollow...What the Vikings did won't save one child, but they think it'll keep their angry sponsors from leaving.

How could anyone disagree with Walter Beach, given the ways in which the Vikings have twisted and turned on Peterson's case. The Radisson Hotel and Nike furrowed their brows, and the Vikings leadership fell to their knees.

The most egregious statement in this entire ordeal was by team owner Zygi Wilf. Wilf said, "We made a mistake and we needed to get this right. It is important to always listen to our fans, the community and our sponsors."

First of all, Mr. Wilf has been officially convicted on civil racketeering charges in the state of New Jersey. He is currently appealing a ruling where he and two family members have to pay $100 million to the people they wronged.

One wonders where he gets the chutzpah to be on any kind of a moral high horse, and one wonders why he is not currently suspended for violating the league's "personal conduct policy."

One also wonders where Mr. Wilf was in caring about the will of "the community" when he was threatening to move the team to Los Angeles, San Diego or some other parts unknown unless the cash-strapped state gave him $1 billion in public funds to build a new stadium.

ONCE ALL of the construction dust and piety has cleared, this is where the NFL is left. If you want to understand why the Vikings have flip-flopped so dramatically on whether or not Peterson is on the team, you can start with the $1 billion eyesore currently being developed in the middle of the great city of Minneapolis.

First, the Vikings felt a tremendous pressure to suspend Peterson following the outcry over the way Ray Rice's suspension was handled. Then, after their terrible Sunday defeat to the New England Patriots and fears about another lost season in Minnesota, they reactivated Peterson. And then the sponsors started to itch, and the next thing you know, Peterson once again is on the outside looking in. This is not a personal conduct policy. It is an amateurish, pandering and altogether odious exercise in public relations.

The real issue is not whether the NFL should have a policy where players are suspended at the mere allegation of impropriety or whether the call should be for the criminal and family courts to do their jobs and for the NFL to mind its own damn business. The problem is that there is no rhyme or reason for anything that Roger Goodell and the National Football League ownership cabal does. They always talk about protecting the shield. But all they really do is hide behind the shield, careening from one public relations disaster to the next.

Roger Goodell and the National Football League need to jettison this personal-conduct-policy nonsense and sit down with the union to collectively bargain some system of dealing with off-field issues. No one should have any confidence that this is a job Roger Goodell and the owners can handle. They have no credibility with players, little credibility with fans and diminishing credibility with sponsors. It's the restlessness of that last group which really makes those in the owners box sweat blood.

First published at TheNation.com.