The Minnesota Vikings deactivated Adrian Peterson for their Week 2 game against the New England Patriots after the running back was indicted by a grand jury in Texas on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child on Friday. Peterson was accused of another such incident on Monday night.
Rusty Hardin, Peterson's attorney, says the latest allegations are unfounded and more than a year old, after which authorities took no action. The prosecution involved with Peterson's current child abuse case was also aware of the incident, which occurred in June of 2013, according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.
CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston cited text messages between Peterson and his other 4-year-old son's mother (a different mother than the one involved with the first incident). The texts provide explicit evidence, through both conversation and photos, that the boy's head was injured after receiving a "whooping" in the backseat of Peterson's car. The boy apparently suffered a head wound that was covered in bandages, based on the photo sent to the boy's mother from Peterson.
According to the KHOU-TV report, the text messages read:
Mother: "What happened to his head?"
Peterson: "Hit his head on the Carseat."
Mother: "How does that happen, he got a whoopin in the car."
Peterson: "Yep."
Mother: "Why?"
Peterson: "I felt so bad. But he did it his self."
Peterson told the mother he was disciplining his son for cursing at his sibling, but how the child was punished and how he sustained the head injury remains unknown. Because this information is nothing new, the Minnesota Vikings will likely keep Peterson activated for this week's game against the New Orleans Saints. The organization said they received this information as a part of the ongoing case and they will continue to wait for the legal process to take its course.
The running back's case won't go to trial for several months, according to Montgomery County first assistant district attorney Phil Grant, but Peterson is scheduled to enter a plea on October 8 at a hearing in Conroe, Texas for the felony charges brought against him. It'll be interesting to see if the NFL steps in after the latest accusations, or if more arise in the near future.
UPDATE: Radisson Hotels suspends their sponsorship with the Minnesota Vikings in the wake of Adrian Peterson's child abuse allegations.
