Adrian Peterson might still be able to help on the football field, but sports marketing experts said Tuesday it would be a mistake for an NFL team to use the suspended running back as a face of the franchise.
“He’s damaged goods,” said John Wendt, a professor of sports law and sports management at the University of St. Thomas.
Peterson was suspended for the remainder of the season by the NFL on Tuesday and won’t be considered for reinstatement before April 15, 2015. The Vikings’ all-time leading rusher and 2012 NFL MVP was indicted Sept. 11 on a felony charge of child abuse for using a switch to discipline his 4-year-old son but plea-bargained it down to misdemeanor reckless assault in a Texas court on Nov. 4.
He already had missed the Vikings’ first nine games while on the NFL commissioner’s exempt list.
Peterson was a popular face for several major corporations, from Nike to General Mills, and the Vikings used him extensively to help promote the new indoor stadium the team will move into in 2016. Peterson has three years and $44.25 million left on his contract after this season but none of it is guaranteed, so the Vikings can release him without further obligation.
If Peterson does ever play for Minnesota again, don’t expect to see him on billboards.
“That train is so far gone,” said Mollie Young, founding principal of Nametag Inc., a Minneapolis-based global branding and naming company. “Absolutely not. It would be an enormous mistake.”
Peterson has admitted hitting his 4-year-old son with a wooden switch but said he was disciplining him the way he was disciplined as a child. Photos taken about a week after the incident in May show the boy with serious wounds that Vikings general manager Rick Spielman has called “disturbing.”
With the Peterson situation, and a 4-6 record, the Vikings face a challenge as they attempt to sell expensive personal seat licenses and lure sponsors for their new stadium. Young said the team’s decision to briefly reinstate Peterson in September still resonates; within days, the Radisson hotel chain suspended its limited sponsorship.
“The brand is significantly tainted through the myriad of missteps when this first happened,” Young said. “Combined with the losing, it doesn’t help. As they go into the new stadium, as the Super Bowl returns (in February 2018), it has to be a positive impression of the brand.”
George John, a marketing professor and associate dean at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, said the Vikings have been trying to distance themselves from Peterson since he went on the exempt list.
“Peterson is no longer the face of the franchise; they have moved on from that,” John said. “Now they pretty much have a team of unknowns and some interesting rookies like (quarterback Teddy) Bridgewater, so they’re in a different place.”
From a marketing standpoint, Wendt said Peterson’s plea bargain to a lesser charge, resulting in probation, didn’t help his image. He pointed to Nike dropping its deal with Peterson immediately after the decision.
“With the stadium, the Vikings have shifted their focus from Adrian Peterson to just the stadium itself,” Wendt said. “They’re going to get the Super Bowl. They’re going to get the Final Four (in 2019). They’re going to focus more on the building itself because the Vikings are scrambling a little bit since they really don’t have a face of the organization.”
Follow Chris Tomasson at twitter.com/christomasson.
