Former Commanders RB Adrian Peterson arrested for alleged domestic violence

The Washington Commanders didn’t take part in the Super Bowl, but their former players were busy making noise.

For starters, former running back Samaje Perine is a massive talking point after the Bengals, trailing by a field goal at the time, gave him the ball on a 3rd and 1 late in the fourth quarter instead of Joe Mixon, who found great success against the Rams’ vaunted front seven all game.

Of course, Perine was stuffed by Aaron Donald and Cincinnati’s fourth-down conversion attempt failed to seal the win for Los Angeles.

Unfortunately, this next story isn’t a joking matter.

Another former Washington RB, Adrian Peterson, found himself in the news cycle on Super Bowl Sunday after he was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport and booked for felony domestic violence, according to TMZ.

Former Commanders RB Adrian Peterson was arrested Sunday after an alleged domestic violence incident.

A statement from airport police says they received a call about possible domestic violence on a plane bound for Houston and responded to “a verbal and physical altercation between a male suspect and a female victim.”

The aircraft had pulled out of the gate at LAX to prep for takeoff, but turned around so police could remove Peterson. The former MVP was taken into custody and the flight eventually departed with the victim, his wife Ashley, remaining on board.

Per ESPN’s John Keim, sources close to the couple say Peterson grabbed her wedding ring and scratched her finger. The source says Ashley is not pressing charges and a representative for the Petersons reiterated that the two “had a verbal argument on the flight,” seemingly indicating no physical acts were carried out.

“This is a private misunderstanding between husband and wife and we anticipate it will all be resolved shortly,” the rep said in the statement.

After the 36-year-old Peterson was released on $50,000 bond, he professed his innocence to Mark Berman of Fox 26.

"I was literally mind-blown that they took me to jail. They were like, ‘I’m sorry, Mr. Peterson, but because she had a scratch on her finger, (in) the state of California, we have to take you in.’ I sit there and watch the plane pull back and take off and I’m just like, ‘Wow! I cannot believe this is happening right now. I’m going to jail, and I literally didn’t do anything.’It’s blown out of proportion. Me and the wife got into an argument on the plane. That was pretty much the gist of it. I ended up grabbing her hand and taking her ring off her finger. She didn’t press any charges. The state of California pressed charges because there was a scratch on her hand. Literally that’s why I went to jail, because the ring left a scratch on her finger. We just had a disagreement. I know the headlines: Domestic violence. You’d think I beat her up or something. It was nothing like that."

Of course, this isn’t Peterson’s first run-in with domestic violence. Back in 2014, he was famously suspended the entire season after he was charged with felony child abuse for using a switch to spank his son, who was 4 years old at the time.

Peterson pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of misdemeanor reckless assault. In addition to the suspension, he was fined $4,000, made to complete 80 hours of community service and given a two-year probation period.

Peterson, who ranks fifth on the NFL’s all-time rushing list with 14,918 yards, spent two seasons with Washington in 2018 and 2019. He appeared in 31 games for the team, amassing 1,940 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns on 4.2 yards per carry.