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On Thursday, the National Football League officially filed their grievance on behalf of Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk summarizes some of the main points.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFLPA raises two primary arguments in support of the appeal. First, the union argues that the NFL has applied a different standard to conduct that occurred before the NFL revised the domestic violence and sexual assault policy on August 28. Attorneys call that ex post facto lawmaking, Latin for "after the fact."
Second, the NFLPA describes the punishment of Peterson as "wildly disparate" in comparison to past punishments imposed on other players. The union points to the six-game suspension imposed Tuesday and the nine games missed while on paid leave.
1500 ESPN also has a summary of some of the main points of the grievance. You can read the actual grievance, legalese and all, at ESPN.com.
The NFLPA has also requested that Roger Goodell recuse himself and that the case be heard by a neutral arbitrator. That's something the NFLPA can request, per the most recent Collective Bargaining Agreement. Through that same CBA, Goodell can. . .and likely will. . .tell the NFLPA to go fornicate themselves on that front and serve as the arbitrator for the case he just handed down punishment for.
Seriously, what else do you reckon he's going to say?
The appeal also touches on whether or not Peterson (and his agent) were told by NFL officials that any time he had spent on the "Commissioner's Exempt" list would be considered time served by the National Football League. The NFL said that the time he spent on the Exempt list was considered. . .which, as ESPN points out, means that the NFL was apparently set to suspend Peterson for the remainder of the 2014 NFL season, regardless of when any sort of judgement may have come down.
To be perfectly clear, I don't think Peterson and the NFLPA have a snowball's chance in Cuba of coming out on top in this appeal. If it was going to actually be heard by a neutral third party, they'd probably have a pretty good shot. But it won't be, because Roger Goodell, y'all.