PETERSON RETURNS

When the Minnesota Vikings gather on Tuesday for their Organized Team Activities, they will welcome back Adrian Peterson. It has been a long and difficult year for both.

Peterson, perhaps the NFL’s best running back, missed all but one game last season after a Texas grand jury indicted him last September on a felony charge after he whipped his 4-year-old son with a switch. He was later placed on the Commissioner’s Exempt List while his case went through court.

The 29-year-old Peterson pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault on Nov. 4 and then was suspended by the NFL on Nov. 18 for the rest of the season and could not be reinstated until April 15. He was also fined $4.1 million, or six weeks’ pay, from his $11.75 million salary in 2014.

Then there were squabbles with the Vikings about whether or not the organization supported him, fights over his reinstatement, whether or not he wanted a trade and the possibility of a new contract. The Vikings told him he could play for them or no one.

One imagines more conciliatory words were exchanged thereafter.

The Vikings immediately become a much better team with Peterson back to take some pressure off second-year quarterback. Peterson has twice led the NFL in rushing in his eight-year NFL career and averages 5.0 yards a carry.

The NFL was roiled by domestic violence issues last year and this the accused – Peterson, Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Ray McDonald – paid heavy prices. Rice is still without a job in the league. McDonald, freshly embroiled in legal problems again, was cut by the Chicago Bears. Hardy was signed by the Dallas Cowboys but is suspended for the first 10 games.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman .