VINCENT FOCUS OF PETERSON’S APPEAL HEARING
new york Adrian Peterson’s appeal hearing concluded Thursday after about two hours, with the primary focus on testimony from NFL executive Troy Vincent.
Peterson is seeking reinstatement after commissioner Roger Goodell suspended him for the final six games of the regular season for violating the league’s personal-conduct policy.
“We want a fair process for Adrian and neutral arbitration for all players,” said George Atallah, the assistant executive of external affairs for the NFL Players Association.
The NFL declined comment.
The players’ union and the NFL have been hassling over revising the personal-conduct policy since Ray Rice’s case inspired Goodell to change the guidelines to a six-game suspension for the first assault, battery or domestic-violence offense.
Rice’s appeal, however, went to a neutral arbiter who ruled in his favor and reinstated him last week.
Peterson gave a statement without testifying Tuesday and didn’t attend Thursday’s hearing.
According to one source, Vincent, the NFL’s executive vice president of football operations, told Peterson he would be credited with time served while he was on a special exempt list and receive a two-game suspension if he attended a disciplinary hearing Nov. 14 with Goodell.
Peterson skipped that meeting and four days later Goodell suspended him.
Clowney’s season over
houston » Top overall pick Jadeveon Clowney will have a second surgery on his right knee, ending his rookie season after just three games.
Clowney visited Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla., onWednesday to have the knee examined, and Texans coach Bill O’Brien announced the news Thursday.
“This guy’s been injured, and it’s time to clean it up and get him back to feeling good and get him back on the field as soon as we can,” O’Brien said.
Blackout rule blasted
washington » Senators from both parties warned the league to get rid of a four-decade-old TV “blackout” rule or risk congressional action to restrict the league’s lucrative antitrust exemption, which allows NFL teams to negotiate radio and television broadcast rights together.
The blackout rule, which bars home games from being televised in a local market if they have not sold out, is unfair to fans who have helped the league reap billions of dollars in revenue from broadcast rights to games that are among the mostwatched programs on TV, lawmakers said.
Footnotes.
Browns wide receiver Miles Austin was released from a Buffalo-area hospital following his kidney injury suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Bills. … Former quarterback Ryan Leaf, selected second overall after Peyton Manning in the 1998 draft, was released from aMontana prison after serving more than two years for breaking into a Great Falls home in 2012 to steal prescription pills.