Posts by Brett Anderson

More details have been released regarding Adrian Peterson’s arrest late Friday night at a Houston Nightclub. The original reports of the event left some questions regarding what Peterson had done to be “tackled” by a police officer. The official report though from Kese Smith, a spokesman for the Houston police department, gives much more detail about what caused the scuffle between AP and HPD.

Below is Smith’s account of the events:

“This happened at a club in downtown Houston called the Bayou Live Nightclub. It began just after 2 a.m. this morning when a Houston police officer working an approved extra job as security began the process of clearing the bar of patrons. The bar had just closed. While doing so he approached Adrian Peterson, who was with a group of people next to the bar. Peterson was talking with that group of people next to the bar and the officer informed Peterson and the group that the bar was closed and asked them to walk toward the nearest exit. The officer left the group to continue advising other patrons the bar was closed. A short time later, the officer returned and found Peterson and the group still talking at the bar. The officer again asked everyone to leave the bar, reminding them that it was closed. As the officer turned away to remind other patrons of this, Peterson told the officer that the group had heard him the first time and pushed the officer in the shoulder causing him to stumble. The officer then informed Peterson he was under arrest and asked him to turn around and place his hands behind his back. Peterson instead began yelling at the officer who again told him to place his hands behind his back. As the officer attempted to place Peterson in handcuffs, Peterson pulled away from the officer and assumed a violent stance. At this time an HPD sergeant, who was also working an approved extra job, saw what was happening and attempted to assist in arresting Peterson. Peterson began struggling with both officers. During this entire time, that initial officer was giving verbal commands to Peterson to stop resisting and place his hands behind his back. Peterson ignored those verbal commands and continued to struggle with the officers and ultimately a third officer had to assist in detaining Peterson. Once placed in handcuffs, Peterson was transported to the Houston Police city jail where he complained of shortness of breath. He was examined by Houston fire department medical personnel who pronounced him to be medically fine. He was then booked into the jail and is charged with resisting arrest, which is a misdemeanor.”

I think there are a couple things worth noting here:

After Adrian Peterson was arrested, he complained of “shortness of breath.” I don’t mean to crack jokes regarding an incident like this, but hopefully this is not a sign that Peterson’s conditioning is severely behind…

This is very out of character for AP who, other than a couple traffic violations, has been a model player on how to carry yourself off-the-field. TMZ reported (Man, do I hate saying that…) that the club manager said Peterson was “heavily intoxicated” and that “He looked really scary… I thought he was gonna attack the cops.” I’m going to go ahead and assume that Peterson’s behavior can primarily be attributed to his mental state at the time. (Not to, in any way, validate that kind of behavior.) From the sound of things, it seems like Peterson was immediately aware that he had screwed up. The same club manager noted that as soon as Peterson was subdued, he apologized and explained that he doesn’t normally drink.

I’m still a little confused regarding the charges, though. I guess it’s a good thing though that Peterson was only charged with resisting arrest, a misdemeanor charge, as opposed to assaulting an officer and resisting arrest. (The officer was ‘off-duty’ though, don’t know if that changes anything…)

Anyway, this whole thing has me very disappointed with Adrian Peterson. I don’t imagine that it will have a huge impact on the Vikings. I don’t even really see Peterson getting much of a punishment from the NFL. But, nonetheless, Vikings fans expect better from him.