When you've lost the fans, you've lost. And by that standard, the Minnesota Vikings are in trouble.
VikingsMessageBoard.com, a longtime board devoted to discussion of the Minnesota Vikings, has shut down forever because of its owners' disgust with the burgeoning Adrian Peterson scandal. And oh, are there plenty of people to be disgusted at. Sure, there's Peterson himself, indicted on charges of child abuse. But the proprietors of the message board also offered the following note, via SB Nation:
Vikings Message Board has been shut down permanently. It will not return. There are two primary reasons.
1. The Vikings' cowardly decision to reinstate a child abuser and think that an apology will make this blow over. We will not stand for this arrogance and we will no longer be the home of any support of the Vikings. We stand for those who cannot defend themselves.
2. We will not give a voice to thugs who think child abuse is "cultural" or worse, openly advocate child abuse as a reasonable method of punishment. This ends here. Yes, a few board members have ruined it for everyone. Congratulations, [jerks].
So there you go. This is why the Internet can't have nice things, and this is why the NFL and its teams are fumbling these current controversies so badly. There are plenty of reasonable NFL fans disgusted with every angle of this story, and now, they've got one less outlet for their views.
Yahoo Sports' comments remain open below, and we are certain that you will offer insightful, measured responses to both this and the Adrian Peterson story as a whole.
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Facebook or on Twitter.
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