While some, like Packers RB Ryan Grant, have taken exception to Peterson’s statement – Grant makes the point that there is, you know, still ACTUAL slavery in the world – Steelers RB Rashard Mendenhall sees Peterson’s point. Writes Mendenhall on his Twitter page (this transcript, by the way, is presented unedited and strung together over about 10 different updates): “

@AdrianPeterson: Anyone with knowledege of the slave trade and the NFL could say that these two parallel eachother. If you look back and disect what I said, I ddnt say that the NFL was slavery, I said that they parallel eachother. Look up the word parallel. This means that they’re not the same thing, but they run the same course. These paths will never cross, but they mirror eachother. I could break down how, but that would take an amount of ideology and big words that a lot of you wouldn’t understand. “Learn to LISTEN before you pass judgement. Because speaking without knowledge of subject is truly ignorant. Outside of the dollar amounts you see on tv, you don’t know what’s going on with the innerworkings of this buisness. I don’t know what goes on at your job. But how dumb would I sound if I read about it in the newspaper and tried to tell you what’s going on? Its bigger than what you people on the outside see on sundays, see on ESPN, read about in the paper. Just like any job, any business anywhere. Really think about that.”

 Since Peterson is traveling to Africa, his agent, Ben Dogra, was left cleaning up some of the mess. “I think anybody that knows Adrian knows that Adrian is a very strong-willed and passionate individual,” Dogra told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. “The game means an awful lot to him. People should not just take his statements per se word by word. It’s a difficult time. He would love to play. I’m sure that everybody would love to see football continue in the NFL and I’m sure at some point it will get resolved. But Adrian, that’s what makes him great. He’s soft-spoken but if he has something on his mind he’ll speak it. But I think nobody should really look at those words and take them out of context.”

Source: CBSSports