Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson filed a formal appeal of his season-ending suspension Thursday through the NFL Players Association.
The NFLPA is claiming that multiple league officials, including NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent, told Peterson that his period on the NFL's exempt list would be considered time served. Vincent has even admitted to discussing this with Peterson. The Players Association is also claiming that Commissioner Roger Goodell illegally punished Peterson under the NFL's personal conduct policy.
"Because the Personal Conduct Policy cannot retroactively be applied to Mr. Peterson's May 2014 conduct, any punishment must be assessed and imposed consistent with the Policy and practices prior to Aug. 28," Union general counsel Tom DePaso wrote to league attorneys.
"No first-time offender of an NFL disciplinary policy - like Mr. Peterson - has served more than a two-game suspension for an act of domestic violence."
By the season's end, Peterson will have missed 15 of a possible 16 games this year.
DePaso and the NFLPA are calling for a neutral third party to arbitrate the appeal process.
"Given the intense criticism that you and the League office have faced from NFL business partners, Congress, the media, NFL fans and the public at large, and the public pronouncements and commitments you have personally made in response to this criticism, it is clear that you have, by your actions, rendered yourself evidently partial and biased in this matter," DePaso wrote to Goodell.
Peterson is entitled to a hearing within three days, according to the collective bargaining agreement.
