Adrian Peterson Beat His Child, Here's Why No One Should Be Surprised

Adrian Peterson beat his son with a switch until the boy's back and legs were bruised and bloody. The most unsettling aspect of the incident is how Peterson didn't seem particularly concerned afterward. In a series of text messages with the boy's mother following what he described as a "whooping," Peterson admitted he felt somewhat guilty about the extent of the child's injuries, but he stood by his decision to punish his son with violence. The regret he expresses is on par with the kind one experiences after having accidentally stepped on a dog's paw, causing it to howl.

Monstrousness begets monstrousness. You can glean as much from numerous papers and studies on child abuse. A kid who is beaten is more likely than average to grow into an adult who beats his or her children. It's thus more than likely, considering Peterson's belief in the efficacy of corporal punishment, that his own youthful transgressions were met with switches and belts. As a result, his personal normal is one that brooks that brand of discipline. Quoth Peterson: "All my kids will know, hey daddy got a biggie heart, but don't play no games when it comes to acting right."

Here's a discomfiting continuum: One of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's listed negative outcomes of corporal punishment is "learning that aggression is an acceptable method of problem solving." Peterson has one of the rare vocations in which aggression actually is an acceptable method of problem solving. Hell, it's a necessity. Peterson is a battering ram with quick feet. He has made a living dishing out and absorbing bodily harm.

This isn't to say Peterson can't differentiate between the gridiron and his living room, or a linebacker and his child, but the brain is exceedingly malleable. It is shaped by habit, and if frequent internet use is rewiring the way we think, imagine what spending a career slamming into other people can do.

And then there's what we know for sure about what slamming into other people does to the brain. The cost of a football career of any considerable length is some degree of brain damage, which can lead, as players age, to dementia and Alzheimer's. The Mayo Clinic cites difficulty with self-control, a lack of awareness of abilities, verbal or physical outbursts, anger, depression, a lack of empathy for others, and anxiety as near-term aftereffects of brain damage. Not coincidentally, many of those traits are listed by Health and Human Services as common among child abusers.

Using any one cause in trying to explain why someone strikes their child is a fool's errand. But it's likely that Peterson's job, in addition his upbringing, has contributed in some meaningful way to he and his son's current predicament. The NFL preaches about how football makes men out of boys, but it also makes husks out of men. A man who was raised to believe hitting a child is acceptable has spent his adult life hitting and being hit. It's no wonder the violence continues.