Sorry Mr. Peterson, NFL is not Slavery...

Not even close...

Sometimes its best to not say anything at all.

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson struck a nerve with fans, owners, and media this week when he compared the NFL labor situation to “modern day slavery.” I find it amazingly embarrassing that he feels as such when he lives a life 95% of the world would be envious of. His exact words to Yahoo were:

“It's modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money … the owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it's how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, 'Hey — without us, there's no football.”

First off, no it’s not Mr. Peterson.

Secondly, no it’s not Mr. Peterson.

I was shocked to see these comments coming from anyone’s mouth a decade into the 21^st century. Even though the rest of what you said in regards to the NFL locking out the players might be true, when you open up an argument with such an incendiary and inflammatory comparison that is totally ignorant and without foresight, you not only destroy the points you think you were making but also allow people to question your intelligence level as a whole.

I hate using Wikipedia to find my facts but on the issue of exactly what slavery is, I think they have it right “Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. In some historical situations it has been legal for owners to kill slaves.”

So really Adrian? I could replace the word slavery with the NFL in this definition and it could be considered similar? Wow, how ignorant that is.

Uneducated and unjustified comments like these never help an argument, ever. Honestly, I also think they can set back an entire race of people who have worked so hard to be able to be treated equally in this country. Slavery is one of the darkest moments in United States history. Even after we abolished slavery, African Americans still had to fight for another 100 years to receive civil liberties and of course, even to this day probably still have a harder time than most be treated fully equal.

Wonder how Zygi felt about these comments

Adrian Peterson is set to make $10.72 million this season, before getting a chance to explore the freedom of free agency and land probably an even bigger deal in 2012. When he retires he’ll receives a pension and health benefits as well. His comments are a direct slap in the face of his employer Zygi Wolf. I could only imagine how thrilled Fredrick Douglass, one of the founders of the anti-slave abolitionist movement, could be if he were alive today to see so many young African American’s accomplishing so much whether through sports, politics, music, art, acting, writing and the like that comments like these must make him roll over in his grave more than a few times.

What Adrian Peterson fails to see is that no one is forcing him to play football. He has the same opportunities as everyone else in this world to work anywhere one wishes. If he doesn’t like how his bosses treat him and truly feels that way, unlike actual slaves, he has the freedom to quit and be off on his merry way. Without the threat of brutality or murder mind you.

What’s sad about his comments too, is that there are people out there who actually agree with him, as I found out Tuesday night via Twitter that Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall is one of them. Here are a few of his tweets from yesterday:

- @AdrianPeterson is correct in his anology of this game. It is a lot deeper than most people understand.

- @AdrianPeterson Anyone with knowledege of the slave trade and the NFL could say that these two parallel eachother

- If you look back and disect what I said, I ddnt say that the NFL was slavery, I said that they parallel eachother. Look up the word parallel

- This means that they're not the same thing, but they run the same course. These paths will never cross, but they mirror eachother.

All I can say to this is thank goodness for Rashard Mendenhall that Twitter only allows 140 characters. He could only dig himself so far into a whole while he was waxing philosophic on all of us.

I can’t help it but for him to say “anyone with any knowledge of the slave trade and the NFL could say that these two parallel each other” makes it flat out obvious that he has no knowledge of this.  Also, we understand what parallel means and still, the NFL doesn’t parallel slavery…at all.

NFL players get an opportunity to lead incredible lives in this country. Especially the very best of them (like the very best in any industry get to live) and the fact they can compare their jobs to slavery is atrocious, misguided and utterly ignorant. Especially when in today’s society there are still an estimated 12 – 27 million people still being enslaved, which proportionately is at an all time low throughout history, but still and unimaginable statistic for today’s world.  

I also find it insulting when Adrian Peterson’s agent Ben Dogra comes out and tells us that we shouldn’t take his words out of context. Oh really? Is that what we are doing? I am not sure he understands what out of context means. It’s not like someone was talking to him about slavery and in the same discussion brought up the NFL and falsely linked the two points. Peterson flatly stated, “ It's [NFL] modern-day slavery, you know?”

No…we don’t.

Martin Luther King had a dream that one day his four children “live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” If he were alive today he would see that this is becoming more and more a reality than ever before. In 2008 this country elected its first African American president and there are African Americans in prominent places all over United States society.

Making comments like this Adrian Peterson, will never help your case but now will make us question one thing. The content of your character.

-BurL