CHICAGO -- On Sunday, the Minnesota Vikings will play their ninth game of the season without Adrian Peterson and try to win in a stadium where they haven't been victorious since he ran for 224 yards as a rookie. As the Vikings arrived in Chicago on Saturday evening, coach Mike Zimmer's words from the beginning of the week -- that he couldn't worry about Peterson until the league made some kind of decision about his status -- appeared more prescient than ever.
It's beginning to feel as though Peterson's case is becoming the fulcrum for issues much larger than whether he will return to the field for Minnesota this season. Nearly two weeks after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless assault charges in Texas, his status is being determined through a disciplinary process no one seems to trust right now. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has already said it will change, but the NFL Players Association wants to make sure it is included in the process. That's why the union made a series of proposals on the league's personal conduct policy last month, and it seems to be behind why Peterson informed the league he would not attend a scheduled disciplinary hearing Friday, as ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported.
The NFLPA believes Peterson should have been reinstated after his plea bargain and cited a signed letter that said the running back would remain on the commissioner's exempt list until his legal matter was resolved. The NFLPA contends the NFL has reneged on that agreement, and Peterson's camp was reportedly concerned about the nature of the meeting and the role outside experts would have in it. Arbitrator Shyam Das is still scheduled to hear on Monday the NFLPA's grievance on whether Peterson should be reinstated while the league determines final discipline, but the Friday meeting would have ultimately been more integral to the question of Peterson's status. The NFL said it will not reschedule the meeting, and its decision about Peterson now appears to be in limbo.
The league wants access to more detailed court information than it currently has; that information was sealed after Peterson's plea bargain and is not available to third parties, according to Texas law. The union doesn't trust the NFL's disciplinary process and is trying to effect change by refusing to go along with the current set of rules.
That doesn't sound like circumstances designed to get Peterson back on the field quickly. Perhaps Das will rule Peterson should be allowed to play while his case is decided; perhaps the league will suspend Peterson based on the information it already has. But the mistrust that exists between the league and the union over player discipline is factoring heavily into Peterson's bid to return to the field, and if both sides are digging in for a protracted battle over the issue, the running back's chances for a quick return could be a casualty of it.
"The League office seems more focused on creating an arbitrary disciplinary process for Adrian instead of honoring a signed agreement to remove him from the Commissioner's list," NFLPA spokesperson George Atallah said Saturday in an email to ESPN. "They are simply making stuff up as they go along. They should commit their efforts to meeting us at the table to collectively bargain a new personal conduct policy."
Meanwhile, the Vikings will have six games left after Sunday. One has to wonder how many they'll have left before they know what happens with Peterson.