Budweiser.
Who knew the moral compass of the National Football League is Joe Six-pack?
Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud, seems to have the NFL’s ear, because despite bold declarations of “due process” for running back Adrian Peterson’s child abuse case, the Minnesota Vikings only backed off when the beer company voiced “disappointment” and “concern” over how the league mismanaged its recent troubles. The Vikings reversed field in a way only Peterson can appreciate by placing their star player on the Exempt/Commissioner’s Permission List, which makes him ineligible to play indefinitely, while his case winds its way through the courts.
Anheuser-Busch spends over $1 billion on NFL advertising and with fellow sponsors McDonald’s, Visa, Nike and Campbell’s Soup — they pressured the NFL in a way that neither public opinion nor common sense has been able to, by threatening their wallets.
Peterson’s situation is especially troubling because last October, another son, a 2-year-old, died of injuries suffered from an assault, apparently by his mother’s live-in boyfriend. I never met Peterson, but I was personally impressed with his dignity and grace and how measured his statements were in such an incredibly difficult time. Yet, within less than a year from that tragic event, he admitted beating another son, a 4-year-old, with a switch so severely that it caused severe welts and bleeding on the boy’s back, legs, buttocks, genitals and ankles.
The Vikings weren’t quite as cruel meting out their punishment — a one-game suspension. But after suffering a 30-7 loss to New England without the All-Pro running back and a trip to New Orleans this coming Sunday, well, a man has rights, right? After all, the courts, not corporations, make judgments. I mean, who are we to say how a man disciplines his children, blah, blah, blah ….
But of course, once the Golden Goose of advertising dollars threatened not to make eggs, or smaller eggs, suddenly the Vikings saw the light. Fittingly, it was a night light because owners Zygi and Mark Wilf issued their statement at nearly 2 a.m. EST when most of us were asleep. Now they say they’re just trying to get it right. Sure you were. Then, what do you know? The Panthers and Cardinals immediately suspended indefinitely their own players arrested or convicted of domestic abuse. The 49ers maintain they will let the judicial process play out for their player, Ray McDonald, who was arrested in late August for domestic abuse.
Meanwhile, the curious case of Ma’ake and Chris Kemoeatu, former Utes, remain under the radar. Domestic abuse? Child endangerment? DUI? Not quite. More compelling and vastly more humane.
You see, Chris — who won two Super Bowls protecting Ben Roethlisberger in Pittsburgh — has suffered with a kidney disease since his teens, needing a transplant. His older brother Ma’ake — who won his Super Bowl ring playing next to Haloti Ngata in Baltimore — was a match. The Kemoeatus needed a year and a half to prepare for the procedure, so after winning the 2012 Super Bowl, Ma’ake simply walked away from the game.
“He couldn’t play anymore and I didn’t want to be in a position where he couldn’t play, but I’d keep playing,” Ma'ake said. “As soon as my brother’s health was at risk I wanted to stop everything. I’m the oldest of seven kids, and it's my responsibility to take care of my younger brothers and sisters. If my younger siblings need blood, it’ll be my blood. If they need a kidney, it’ll have to be my kidney.”
Their careers now over, sadly, they’re just what the NFL needs right now.
It’s a rare commodity, but the Kemoeatus are showing us that it is possible to be both tough and kind.