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The appeal of Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson is set to be heard by "neutral" arbiter Harold Henderson on Tuesday. According to Pro Football Talk, the Peterson team may have a little something that could. . .could, mind you. . .spice things up a little bit.
Peterson contends that NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent told Peterson that time missed on the Commissioner-Exempt list will be treated as "time served" for the purposes of his discipline under the personal conduct policy. Per multiple sources, the evidence submitted by Peterson in connection with his appeal includes a transcript of a conversation between Peterson and Vincent.
The existence of the transcript means that a conversation between Peterson and Vincent was recorded. It's possible, but not yet confirmed, that the raw audio recording also was included in the submission by Peterson.
If a transcript of this exists, as well as the "raw" audio of the conversation, it would certainly go a long way towards backing up Peterson's contention that his time on the Commissioner's Exempt list would be treated as "time served" in connection with any sort of discipline that could be coming from the league. Of course, the league has said that they did consider it to be time served, which means they were set to suspend him for 15 games from the start. . .something that, on its face, sounds relatively ludicrous.
In addition, the NFLPA is going to argue that Peterson should not be punished retroactively for something that happened prior to 28 August, which is when the league's new Personal Conduct Policy was put into place.
It certainly adds a little bit more intrigue to this Tuesday's appeal hearing. While we know the date of the hearing, there's no set timetable for when any sort of ruling might be announced. It's something we'll definitely be keeping an eye on for you.