Vikings message board shuts down, disgusted by both team and fans

[PhxRam]

When you've lost the fans, you've lost. And by that standard, the Minnesota Vikings are in trouble.

VikingsMessageBoard.com, a longtime board devoted to discussion of the Minnesota Vikings, has shut down forever because of its owners' disgust with the burgeoning Adrian Petersonscandal. And oh, are there plenty of people to be disgusted at. Sure, there's Peterson himself, indicted on charges of child abuse. But the proprietors of the message board also offered the following note, via SB Nation:

Vikings Message Board has been shut down permanently. It will not return. There are two primary reasons.

1. The Vikings' cowardly decision to reinstate a child abuser and think that an apology will make this blow over. We will not stand for this arrogance and we will no longer be the home of any support of the Vikings. We stand for those who cannot defend themselves.

2. We will not give a voice to thugs who think child abuse is "cultural" or worse, openly advocate child abuse as a reasonable method of punishment. This ends here. Yes, a few board members have ruined it for everyone. Congratulations, [jerks].

So there you go. This is why the Internet can't have nice things, and this is why the NFL and its teams are fumbling these current controversies so badly. There are plenty of reasonable NFL fans disgusted with every angle of this story, and now, they've got one less outlet for their views.

Yahoo Sports' comments remain open below, and we are certain that you will offer insightful, measured responses to both this and the Adrian Peterson story as a whole.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...isgusted-by-both-team-and-fans-141959347.html

 

[Stranger]

but they shut down all the voices of reasonable people as well.

 

[Rams and Gators]

Yahoo Sports' comments remain open below, and we are certain that you will offer insightful, measured responses to both this and the Adrian Peterson story as a whole.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-s...isgusted-by-both-team-and-fans-141959347.html

Is that a joke?

We should start a petition to have RamStalk follow suit out of solidarity.

 

[Prime Time]

There are two primary reasons.

I see only one reason listed: the reinstatement of Adrian Peterson.

This seems like a knee-jerk reaction by the owner(s) of that board not by the fans. It's probably also an overreaction to their buttwhipping by the Patriots after they thought they were a really great team because they beat the Rams.

 

[RaminExile]

but they shut down all the voices of reasonable people as well.

Surely it would have been better to post a stick message setting out the boards position - i.e. that there is no place for child abuse and that the board had no sympathy for it - and any messages condoning it or otherwise excusing it would not be tolerated and bans would be handed out for repeatedly bringing it up? Deleting the board forever seems draconian - but if they do feel that strongly that the team has acted in a really reprehensible way (and I feel that the Vikings organization has actually let themselves down here) then withdrawing all support from the franchise is about as strong a message as you can send.

 

[Prime Time]

Is that a joke?

We should start a petition to have RamStalk follow suit out of solidarity.

No thanks, we have enough work to do here already without dealing with a flood from Rams Talk.

 

[Selassie I]

I had no idea that viqueen fans could read and write.

 

[Athos]

I see only one reason listed: the reinstatement of Adrian Peterson.

This seems like a knee-jerk reaction by the owner(s) of that board not by the fans. It's probably also an overreaction to their buttwhipping by the Patriots after they thought they were a really great team because they beat the Rams.

Well, it is their board, and while yes, it seems rather knee-jerk...

I was left rather flabbergasted by the two idiots the Vikings ran out there to explain Peterson being reinstated and suiting up to play next week.

Not only was their reasoning clunky, it seemed to settle on "we want to win, and the team matters most" mentality.

 

[RaminExile]

Not only was their reasoning clunky, it seemed to settle on "we want to win, and the team matters most" mentality.

Which is why these guys are tolerated so much. The real rule is "don't get caught" being an a hole. It should be - don't be an a-hole.

 

[Prime Time]

Well, it is their board, and while yes, it seems rather knee-jerk...

I was left rather flabbergasted by the two idiots the Vikings ran out there to explain Peterson being reinstated and suiting up to play next week.

Not only was their reasoning clunky, it seemed to settle on "we want to win, and the team matters most" mentality.

Btw I think the term "buttwhipping" I used in my post was inappropriate but I can't find the inappropriate button to click. As to your comment.....

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/09/16/adrian-peterson-minnesota-vikings-double-standard/

Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Due Process and Double Standards
Why are the Vikings treating Adrian Peterson differently than they did Chris Cook, Caleb King, A.J. Jefferson and Erin Henderson? Because you’ve probably never heard of them
By Robert Klemko

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. – When Vikings general manager Rick Spielman took the podium Monday following a weekend in which former NFL MVP Adrian Peterson was deactivated then reinstated as starting running back, he began by reading a statement, no doubt vetted by the suits looking on from the back of the room. “We must defer to the legal system to determine whether he went too far,” Spielman said of Peterson, who was indicted in Texas last week for whipping his child with a tree branch, “but we cannot make that judgment.”

Then came the first question.

What message are you sending to victims of abuse?

Said Spielman: “We feel strongly as an organization that [Peterson's behavior] is disciplining a child.” The choice to reinstate the running back, added the general manager, “has nothing to do with him as a football player.”

Spielman brought up due process, discussions with Peterson’s attorneys and the Vikings’ attempts to “gather all the information we can.” It all appeared part of a larger effort to give Adrian Peterson every benefit of the doubt.

Why? How could the Vikings be so adamant about protecting the man who admittedly whipped his 4-year-old son with a tree branch and left cuts that were visible days later—wounds determined by a doctor and a grand jury to constitute evidence of abuse?

Chris Cook might be asking that very question. In 2011, when Spielman was vice president of player personnel, the Vikings under team owner Zygi Wilf suspended Cook after the cornerback was charged with felony domestic assault. Cook was reinstated a few weeks later but was told to stay away from the team until the legal process played out. Cook missed 10 games that season. He was later acquitted of all charges.

As Spielman gained influence and rank, the Vikings’ willingness to part ways with offenders before the completion of due process became a de facto policy. The team cut Caleb King in 2012 after an arrest for assault; in 2013 it released A.J. Jefferson hours after his arrest for alleged domestic violence; and this winter Minnesota cut linebacker Erin Henderson following a DUI arrest.

Cook, King, Jefferson and Henderson made it easy for the Vikings to cast them away. They weren’t stud performers, and they hadn’t won over the locker room; at least, not like Peterson.

Exhibit A: The what little that was heard Sunday and Monday around the team came from a handful of players defending the running back. Most other players remained silent.

* * *
That Peterson is a great teammate is undisputed, but the team reaction to this latest allegation against an NFL player is in some ways split according to childhood experience. Some players who were inclined to speak to the media defended what Peterson termed “disciplining” his son. Said fullback Jerome Felton: “I’m from the south, so I probably got it a little worse than that growing up. I’ve had it a couple times. My mother cared about me a lot, and I knew people who didn’t have parents who cared and didn’t discipline them and turned out a lot different than I did.”

Most players, though, declined to comment Sunday after a loss to the Patriots and weren’t available Monday in a sparsely-attended open locker room session. Of those who were willing to talk, the number of players who spoke candidly were outnumbered by those who professed to mind their business and who said they hadn’t even seen the pictures of Peterson’s bloodied son.

“You don’t want to see anything like that, especially with the type of guy he is,” said second-year linebacker Gerald Hodges, who says Peterson often sneaks brand-new cleats into his locker upon request. “I didn’t believe anything until it was addressed by our coach. I didn’t see the pictures; you just hear people talking about it. You let him handle his own situation.”

Hodges wasn’t alone. “Honestly,” another player told me, “no one is talking about it. We usually talk about everything in this room, but everyone is quiet on this one.”

Turning a blind eye and a deaf ear is becoming the theme of this hell month for the NFL.

Last week it took video of Ravens running back Ray Rice striking his fiancée to emerge for the team and the league to act. Until then players defended Rice, even with the existence of video depicting the aftermath of the incident, Rice dragging Janay Palmer’s unconscious body out of an elevator. After the release, Ravens players reportedly felt they’d been lied to about the events of that night by the running back, and told Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman as much. Only then did they turn.

For NFL players to behave this way, with an unwavering support of a teammate against all but the most damning evidence imaginable, is understandable.

But we’re supposed to hold the commissioner of the NFL and its team owners, general managers and coaches to a higher standard. At least, that’s what Roger Goodell told us. Yet we’re watching them operate like teammates, not like bosses—shielding their eyes and ears from the graphic details and hiding behind due process in a case in which all the facts are on the table.

It only affirms what we’ve come to learn these past several days about some of the men who run the NFL: Decency is only a matter of convenience.

 

[-X-]

So? If you can't control your own board and curtail a few [jerks] who ruined the whole thing, then sure. Dump it all. But don't blame it on Peterson. That just sounds like an excuse from the board owner who got tired of the Peterson talk getting away from him and his moderators. If the sole reason was because it was morally reprehensible to be affiliated with Peterson, then why would you let your domain redirect to yet ANOTHER Vikings message board? Sort of. They haven't gotten the redirect correct the last time I checked, but this is where their domain name goes now.

http://forums.purplepride.org/forum.php

Nuke your board AND your domain if you're so just and pure. Don't direct everyone who went there to another board to continue the same discussions/actions.

 

[blue4]

Spanking an unruly child with a hand on the butt is one thing. Everyone has had a swat to the butt by an exasperated mom, esp at the age when you don't understand grounding and other stuff. Inflicting open wounds is another, and being from the south or whatever doesn't excuse that. That's pure child abuse, and I don't blame that forum for doing the only thing they felt they could do to express their anger.

 

[Irish]

 

[blue4]

So? If you can't control your own board and curtail a few [jerks] who ruined the whole thing, then sure. Dump it all. But don't blame it on Peterson. That just sounds like an excuse from the board owner who got tired of the Peterson talk getting away from him and his moderators. If the sole reason was because it was morally reprehensible to be affiliated with Peterson, then why would you let your domain redirect to yet ANOTHER Vikings message board? Sort of. They haven't gotten the redirect correct the last time I checked, but this is where their domain name goes now.

http://forums.purplepride.org/forum.php

Nuke your board AND your domain if you're so just and pure. Don't direct everyone who went there to another board to continue the same discussions/actions.

I think the shot about them being so just and pure was a little overboard. Could be they just felt strongly about the issue, and let the link stand for the convenience of their regulars.

 

[-X-]

I think the shot about them being so just and pure was a little overboard. Could be they just felt strongly about the issue, and let the link stand for the convenience of their regulars.

I don't think it was overboard. It sounded like they were fed-up with the whole saga and decided to dump it instead of trying to make it better (which is why they spoke about the actions of a few ruining it for the whole). If the mere thought of being affiliated with Peterson is the sole reason they nuked their site, then they shouldn't be the hand that points them to another venue. That's encouraging the very thing they say they cannot stand for.

 

[Sum1]

This whole thing is only going to get worse before it gets better.

The sad thing about it all...even though this is all bad PR for the NFL, it is still PR. They are still the center of everyones attention.

 

[ChrisW]

I don't think it was overboard. It sounded like they were fed-up with the whole saga and decided to dump it instead of trying to make it better (which is why they spoke about the actions of a few ruining it for the whole). If the mere thought of being affiliated with Peterson is the sole reason they nuked their site, then they shouldn't be the hand that points them to another venue. That's encouraging the very thing they say they cannot stand for.

Almost like they were looking for a reason to get out. Or, at the end of their rope with running the site.

 

[blue4]

I don't think it was overboard. It sounded like they were fed-up with the whole saga and decided to dump it instead of trying to make it better (which is why they spoke about the actions of a few ruining it for the whole). If the mere thought of being affiliated with Peterson is the sole reason they nuked their site, then they shouldn't be the hand that points them to another venue. That's encouraging the very thing they say they cannot stand for.

No its not. Its giving the people that they know a link to somewhere else. I dont see how this gives room to cast doubts on their purity.

 

[-X-]

No its not. Its giving the people that they know a link to somewhere else. I dont see how this gives room to cast doubts on their purity.

Well, I already explained why. You don't have to agree with me. And the link they're giving the people they know is also the same link they're giving their alleged trouble-makers. So again, if this is about moral integrity and frustration with bad apples, then how it is moral to transfer all of the same issues to someone else? And I'm not even speculating about the money that may have changed hands here, so I'm not being a total jerk about it either.

 

[moklerman]

Spanking an unruly child with a hand on the butt is one thing. Everyone has had a swat to the butt by an exasperated mom, esp at the age when you don't understand grounding and other stuff. Inflicting open wounds is another, and being from the south or whatever doesn't excuse that. That's pure child abuse, and I don't blame that forum for doing the only thing they felt they could do to express their anger.

I'm having a hard time with this issue. Not to say that I think it's ever acceptable to harm a child but I've had my ass whipped and/or beat more than a few times when I was growing up.

I never got the switch so I don't really know what kind of marks that "normally" leaves. But I've got the belt and that doesn't leave marks but if we get right down to it, it would also be considered child abuse nowadays.

So, I completely agree that Peterson went too far but I still feel like it was in the act of discipline and not torture. I mean, if Peterson really wanted to hurt someone...anyone, much less a 4 years old, he could easily do a LOT of permanent damage so it makes me doubt that he was actually trying to inflict damage.