Vikings Lead NFL In Number Of Player Arrests
Read More: Criticism Mounting For Vikings, Adrian Peterson
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The Vikings hold a title the team doesn't celebrate – the most players arrested in the NFL.
According to USA Today, 45 Minnesota Vikings have been arrested since 2000.
That's double the league average.
But as WCCO discovered, what the Vikings do after police are called varies from player to player.
From assaults of a wife and girlfriends, to a dozen DWI's, charges against the Minnesota Vikings have been making headlines long before Adrian Peterson told police in Houston how he "whooped" his 4-year-old son.
When a traffic cop said Randy Moss pushed her down with his SUV in Minneapolis, he didn't miss a game.
Neither did the four players charged in the boat-party sex scandal that later rocked the Vikings roster.
"I will not tolerate this behavior ever again," Zygi Wilf said at the time.
A new code of conduct was instated and in the years after that investigation, Chris Cook missed 10 games in 2011. The cornerback said he pushed his girlfriend into a wall and slapped her in the face. He was later acquitted.
In 2012, the team cut Caleb King hours after a fight where a young man suffered a broken skull and brain injury.
The Vikings also parted ways with AJ Jefferson last year after his girlfriend said he picked her up by the throat and lifted her from her bed during a fight.
But, pictures of open wounds on a player's 4-year-old son that doctors called child abuse weren't enough for Vikings brass to bench Peterson.
Raising questions of how much of a role Peterson's performance on the field played in the Vikings decision.
Vikings General Manger Rick Spielman said that's not the case a press conference Monday.
"It has nothing to do with him as a football player. It has to do based purely on the facts that have been presented to us," Spielman said.
Five NFL players have been arrested or charged in incidents involving children since 2000.
In one case, a Cincinnati Bengal's player was charged for making threats at his child's day care. In another, a New York Giants player was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the death of his ex-girlfriend's son.
Police say Jeremiah Parker spanked the boy, hit him with a belt and, put him in the refrigerator as regular punishment.