Columnist Rips Adrian Peterson for Son's Murder

Phil Mushnick's column quite controversial, to say the least
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 14, 2013 1:03 PM CDT
Columnist Rips Adrian Peterson for Son's Murder
Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson pauses during introductions before an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers in Minneapolis, Sunday, Oct. 13, 2013.   (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Days after the death of Adrian Peterson's toddler son, a New York Post columnist is taking Peterson to task. Phil Mushnick is upset, first of all, that Peterson said he was ready to play football hours after the boy's death, rather than being incapacitated by grief. Secondly, Mushnick wonders: How could Peterson have allowed his son to remain in a dangerous situation (the boy's mother's boyfriend, who has a history of violence, is suspected of beating him to death)? As an NFL MVP, couldn't he "have provided his son a better life, a longer life?" And, finally, Mushnick takes issue with Peterson in general, noting his arrests for reckless driving and resisting arrest when he and his friends refused to leave a nightclub. (The Post's online homepage is teasing the column with the headline, "Son's death doesn't make Adrian Peterson a great person.")

Needless to say, Mushnick's column was met with a bit of outrage:

  • On Gawker, Hamilton Nolan posted his response in the "Monsters" category and calls the Post "New York's most pungent gutter tabloid."
  • Likewise, David D.'s headline on Uproxx: "Phil Mushnick Is a Horrible Person for His Adrian Peterson Article." He concludes by declaring Mushnick "classless, racist, and despicable."
  • And Larry Brown declares the entire thing "possibly [the] worst column ever" and a new low for Mushnick, a notorious pot-stirrer.
  • On Awful Announcing, Reva Friedel calls it "the most offensive sports column in the history of earth."
As several of Mushnick's critics point out, Peterson only recently learned he was the toddler's father, and met the boy for the first time when he was on life support. (More Adrian Peterson stories.)

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