The Vikings now know that Adrian Peterson will not suit up again for them this season.
All that is left, besides a potential legal battle between the NFL and the NFL Players Association, is the question of whether the star running back ever will play for the franchise again.
The NFL and Commissioner Roger Goodell on Tuesday morning suspended the career rushing leader in Vikings history for not only the remainder of the 2014 season but through April 15, 2015. Peterson appealed, but it would be heard by Goodell himself, making it unlikely there would be any altering of the ruling.
Later Tuesday, arbitrator Shaym Das, who on Monday heard Peterson's grievance with the league, ruled Peterson would remain on the commissioner's exempt list, eliminating the possibility that he could play while his appeal of the suspension was considered. The NFL suspended Peterson without pay; he will be paid while on the exempt list, however.
Peterson, who hasn't suited up for the Vikings since the season opener, has been on the list since being charged with a felony count of assault in September after disciplining his 4-year-old son with a switch. The court case was settled two weeks ago when Peterson pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault.
Goodell said Peterson violated the league's personal conduct policy "in an incident of abusive discipline" in May at his home in Texas when he whipped his son with a tree branch. He went on to call what Peterson did to his son "emotional and psychological trauma" that came in the form of "criminal physical abuse at the hands of his father."
Now Peterson is required to meet with Dr. April Kuchuk, an instructor in the New York University Department of Psychiatry and a forensic consultant to the New York City District Attorney's offices and New York courts, by Dec. 1 to design a mandatory program of counseling, therapy and possible community service.
"We are prepared to put in place a program that can help you to succeed, but no program can succeed without your genuine and continuing engagement," Goodell said in a letter to Peterson. "You must commit yourself to your counseling and rehabilitative effort, properly care for your children, and have no further violations of law or league policy."