George Atallah Discusses Adrian Peterson’s Suspension on AMERICA’S PREGAME

A ruling handed down earlier Tuesday by the National Football League mandated that Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson will be suspended for the remainder of the 2014 regular season. On Nov. 4, Peterson pled no contest to a misdemeanor reckless assault charge for an incident involving the punishment of his 4-year old son. After the indictment surfaced in September, the 2012 NFL MVP spent nine weeks on the Commissioner’s Exempt List, a paid leave that kept him away from the team while his legal proceedings played out. The NFL Players Association issued a statement earlier Tuesday, in conjunction with an appeal filed on Peterson’s behalf.

The NFLPA’s Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs George Atallah was available via a phone interview with host Mike Hill on Tuesday’s edition of AMERICA’S PREGAME on FOX Sports 1. His comments are included below:  

On the NFL Players Association’s reaction to the NFL suspending Peterson for the rest of the 2014 season:

“We believe that the discipline was completely arbitrary and there was no due process for Adrian. And frankly, as I’ve said a number of times before, the NFL has continued to make stuff up as they go along. That’s not the process that we’ve agreed to under our Collective Bargaining Agreement; the critics are correct in saying that there are broad powers afforded to the Commissioner in the CBA, but those broad powers do not mean that they can be overstepped under the CBA. It does not mean that they can forego fairness, it doesn’t mean that they can forego industrial due process and it certainly doesn’t mean that the disciplinary process has to be inconsistent. So those are the three things that I believe have led us to fight for Adrian’s rights like we would for any player in the NFL."

On today’s arbitration ruling that Peterson does not need to be moved off the Commissioner’s Exempt List by the NFL:

"You never want a decision in an arbitration to go against you. But I think, materially, it doesn’t really mean much. All it means is, we’ll continue to pursue all of our legal remedies and unfortunately, it proves that the agreements that we signed with the NFL are not necessarily worth the piece of paper that they’re printed on. That’s really disappointing to us, we would have hoped that there would be a little more integrity and trust between the union and the league at this point."

On when disputes over player discipline will become a less contentious process:

"When some of the owners in the NFL show leadership, plain and simple. The NFL is not run by the Commissioner’s office, it’s run by the Management Council and the owners. Once the owners want to commit to a collectively bargained process and show some leadership and show some transparency in terms of what type of a process we want and can have, that’s when we’ll have a better result for players and that’s when our fans will know exactly what is going on."