Please Stop Saying What Adrian Peterson Did To His 4 Year-Old Son Is Acceptable (Because It’s Not)

I understand the varying views on so much of the Adrian Peterson situation. There's a lot of passion surrounding the issues. We're Vikings fans, Adrian Peterson fans, and football fans. We're parents, grandparents, sons, and daughters. And we're all different, but...

• Regardless of whether or not we agree on how his case has been handled by the NFL and the team.
• Regardless of whether we think he should play or sit out during the legal process.
• Regardless of how we were raised and disciplined as children.
• Regardless of the culture or common practices in certain regions.
• Regardless of how important the discipline of children is to us.
• Regardless of whether or not we think he's a good dad who loves his kids.
• Regardless of whether or not we approve of corporal punishment.
• Regardless of whether we think he's done a lot of good for the community.

What he did to his 4 year-old son is unconditionally unacceptable. Period. Even Adrian Peterson himself has admitted to delivering the beating, and has expressed deep regret for causing this level of injury to his son. 

I saw Vikings defensive back Captain Munnerlyn being interviewed on the news tonight, saying that he didn't see anything wrong with what Peterson had done. He went on to explain how what Adrian had done to his son was no worse than what his mother had done to him, and smiled while saying, "It got me to this point now, I'm in the NFL." The reporter then asked him if he had seen the pictures of Peterson's 4 year-old son, and Munnerlyn replied, "No."

Then Captain, might I suggest you shut the hell up. At best, your ignorance is mind-numbing. At worst, your message is harmful to children.

I can only hope that others that have offered varying degrees of acceptance of Peterson's actions have also not yet seen the photos, making the assumption that it couldn't possibly be as bad as people are making it out to be. It is. (view photos here)

We're better than this. These are our children. Treat, teach, and raise them well. Nothing is more important.

If there really is a fine line between discipline and beating (which I find ridiculous despite reading it in social media so many times this week), then we ought to stay as far the hell away from that line as possible.