Federal Court Rules Against NFL in Peterson Case

According to ESPN, U.S. District Judge David Doty has ruled that the NFL’s arbitrator “failed to meet his duty” when deciding to uphold Adrian Peterson’s suspension stemming from his child abuse case. This clears the way for Peterson to be immediately reinstated to the NFL. Judge Doty found that Harold Henderson, the NFL’s arbitrator, “simply disregarded the law of the shop,” when applying the NFL’s new domestic violence policy to Peterson’s case. Because Peterson’s conduct occurred before the implementation of the new policy, which carries a six-game suspension for a first offense, the NFLPA and Peterson argued that the old personal conduct policy should govern. Judge Doty agreed and found that this case could not be distinguished from that of Ray Rice’s where the NFL also attempted to retroactively apply its new domestic violence policy.

Jason Fixelle is the Sports Highlight Editor for the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law and a current second year student at Harvard Law School (Class of 2016).