Flashback: The story of Adrian Peterson’s son is tragic in more ways than one
Published Saturday, October 12, 2013
“The dying boy was Peterson’s “secret” son. The media is not even sure Peterson has ever met his spawn, who clung to life while the all-star running back performed routine drills.’
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On Friday morning the most shocking news broke. Adrian Peterson’s son had been beaten nearly to death by a man the boy’s mother was dating. The boy was clinging to life in critical condition.
Peterson had hustled off to South Dakota on Thursday. At the time the Vikings were saying only that he was dealing with a pressing “family health matter”. Football fans and non-fans alike were horrified to learn of the tragic significance of Peterson’s absence. But then he practiced at the Vikings facility on Friday afternoon with his son hundred of miles away on life support. Peterson even spoke with the media in the locker room, assuring the Minnesota faithful that he would “absolutely” play on Sunday. He asked reporters to be respectful and not to inquire about the health of his son. It was a family matter.
But it’s doubtful that Peterson considered the boy a part of his “family” at all.
The boy in the South Dakota hospital, who would pass away on Friday afternoon, was not Adrian Peterson Junior, who lives with “All-Day”. He was a child born to a mother Peterson barely knew, a conquest; a one-night-stand who requested a paternity test to prove that Peterson was the father. The dying boy was Peterson’s “secret” son. The media is not even sure Peterson has ever met his spawn, who clung to life while the all-star running back performed routine drills.
Throughout the day Twitter oozed with sympathy for Adrian Peterson and prayers for him and “his family”. People recoiled at the cruelty of the abuser who laid his hands on the two-year old and wondered how anybody could do such a horrible thing. Some even blasted the boy’s mother for bringing the bad man around.
What nobody asked was “where was Adrian Peterson?”
This instance brings to light several tragic things. The scourge of child abuse certainly tops the list. But the plight of fatherless children is one, too. Adrian Peterson is certainly not the first professional athlete to impregnate a woman and leave his child behind. It happens quite frequently, actually. It’s not only jocks that do this, either. Mothers are raising children alone in greater number than ever before. It’s a massive problem in the African American community, especially.
The media was so devoted to the “poor Adrian Peterson” narrative and so busy offering “thoughts and prayers” that not one single journalist had the courage to address the fact that Peterson had a “secret” child. The fact that it wasn’t his “public” child that had been beaten to death didn’t fit the sympathetic tone of the day so it was completely downplayed – almost to the point of being covered up.
The real narrative might have been “Adrian Peterson had an unwanted child out of wedlock / the child’s mother was so desperate for assistance and love that she was forced to trust an abuser / Peterson’s child was on life support while he practiced playing football for the Vikings”. But that would have sounded rather harsh.
This story is tragic in many ways. But the saddest aspect of it all is that men spread their seed and take no responsibility for their offspring. Peterson paid. Of that we can be sure. If it was established that the boy was his the mother certainly sued. It was clearly part of the settlement that the woman not discuss the identity of her child’s father with the media. Instead of being part of the boy’s life, Peterson sent checks. As we learned on Friday, checks can only go so far in helping to raise a child.
The ultimate tragedy is that a two-year old boy is dead as the result of abuse. The man who beat him is a murderer and will be punished and vilified. But the man who created the situation will remain the object of sympathy – and a star.
