Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson will be reinstated by the NFL after a judge overturned the NFL’s decision to suspend him through April.
Judge David S. Doty ruled in favor of Peterson after the NFL Players Association filed a motion to have the suspension lifted. As a result, Peterson is now officially active again.
Peterson appealed his season-long suspension in December but was denied. It is somewhat surprising that a judge ruled to overturn the decision so quickly, though a previous report indicated that the NFLPA had submitted an audio recording of a conversation between Peterson and NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent. The tape allegedly features Vincent telling Peterson his time served on the Commissioner’s Exempt List would count toward his punishment.
Suddenly, the Vikings have a huge decision to make. If Peterson remained suspended, they would have had until April 15 to decide what to do with him. Instead, the team will have to weigh its options amid reports that Peterson has no intention of ever playing for the Vikings again.
We already know that there is a growing belief Peterson wants to play for a certain team in Texas. If the Vikings keep him, the 29-year-old will carry a whopping cap hit of $15 million in 2015. It seems highly unlikely that AP would agree to any type of restructure at this point.
UPDATE: Peterson has not yet been officially reinstated. As ESPN’s Jim Trotter noted, his case has been returned to arbiter Harold Henderson. Only the NFL can reinstate a player, but Judge Doty’s ruling forces the NFL to hear the case based on the league’s previous code of conduct policy. Peterson is still likely to be reinstated after Doty overturned the decision — it’s just a matter of when.
