On Sunday, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson made his first start at home since being suspended for the 2014 season following his indictment on felony child injury charges last September (Peterson eventually pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless assault as part of a plea deal and avoided any jail time).
And wouldn’t you know it, Vikings fans sure were glad to see their guy, so much so that they gave him a standing ovation before the game and chanted “AP! AP!” during it.
Peterson had a great game, racking up 192 all-purpose yards (he was the team’s leading rusher and receiver) and helping the team to a 26-16 victory. It also completed the heartwarming comeback story that has been perpetuated by ESPN and other national outlets who know just how marketable a star Peterson still is. There’s no time to be worrying about a pesky child abuse charge when Peterson could be out there crafting a storyline producers would salivate over!
This is essentially the overarching thought of sports fandom: as long as you play for my team, I don’t care what you do. Steelers fans never cared much about Ben Roethlisberger sexually assaulting women. Eagles, Jets and Steelers fans don’t seem to mind that Michael Vick viciously tortured dogs to death. Plenty of fans couldn’t care less that Ray Rice knocked out his wife on camera and showed no remorse for it because their teams need help at running back. You can bet that Patriots fans were hoping that Aaron Hernandez was going to somehow beat those murder charges and find his way back onto the team.
Now we have Peterson, who struggled so VALIANTLY through ADVERSITY to get to this point. The man has overcome so much and now gets to enjoy the undying support and adoration from Vikings fans everywhere because he’s still mega talented.
And when the 2024 NFL MVP is discovered to be a cannibalistic serial killer who finds victims in every road city he plays in, and takes a plea deal for a reduced two-year sentence that allows him to quickly return to the league while still in his prime, you can bet that you’ll be begging for him to join your team.
Of course, cheering for Adrian Peterson wasn’t the most egregious mistake made on Sunday. Below you will find a mom outfitting her child in a Darren Sharper jersey. You know Sharper – he’s the guy in prison for nine years because he took a plea deal to resolve NINE rape charges against him that spanned across the country.
The NFL is the worst.
H/T Deadspin
