Although Adrian Peterson missed a disciplinary hearing on Friday (which PFR’s Luke Adams discussed in detail), Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports writes that the NFL could still make a disciplinary decision next week and that Peterson could return to the field as early Week 12.
While that sounds like good news for Peterson, he is unhappy with the NFL’s characterization of his failure to appear at Friday’s hearing. Mike Garafolo of FOX Sports tweets that Peterson and the NFL Player’s Association would have agreed to a meeting with commissioner Roger Goodell, but they rejected a “hearing” with outside experts. In a statement issued through the NFLPA, (the full version of which can be found here), Peterson had this to say:
“The report that I backed out of a meeting with the NFL is just not true. When Roger Goodell’s office asked that I attend the “hearing” on Friday, I consulted with my union and learned that this “hearing” was something new and inconsistent with the CBA.
After consulting with the union, I told the NFL that I will attend the standard meeting with the Commissioner prior to possible imposition of discipline, as has been the long-term practice under the CBA, but I wouldn’t participate in a newly created and non-collectively bargained pre-discipline “hearing” that would include outside people I don’t know and who would have roles in the process that the NFL wouldn’t disclose.
I’m sorry for all of this, but I can’t excuse their refusal to be fair.”
Again, the grievance hearing that is scheduled for tomorrow appears set to take place as expected, with Peterson’s imminent return a possible outcome of that hearing, but this latest development may further complicate was has already become a convoluted saga. As Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk succinctly puts it, “The fight between Peterson and the NFL does not appear likely to end soon.”