It's been nearly two years since Adrian Peterson was accused of and eventually plead no contest to hitting his 4-year-old son with a switch.
The Minnesota Vikings running back, who was suspended nearly all of the 2014 NFL season because of the incident, says he was unfairly judged in the court of popular opinion.
“I missed an entire season, you know?” Peterson told "In Depth With Graham Bensinger," via the New York Post. “I was judged before I was actually judged, you know? But I’ll accept it because it didn’t break me. It made me a stronger person, a smarter, more wiser individual. I was actually able to see people, a lot of people, for who they really are.”
Peterson's discipline left his son with inches-long bruises on his body. He ultimately avoided jail time with a plea of no contest to a misdemeanor reckless assault charge, paid $4,000 in fines, and lost $4.2 million in salary by missing 15 games in the 2014 season.
As he has all along, Peterson maintained that he never meant to harm his son — it was strictly discipline.
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“I would think that any parent wouldn’t intentionally harm their child, you know, and in my case, that was definitely, you know, what it was,” Peterson said. “It was purely trying to discipline him, and unfortunately, because of errors on my behalf, it ended up differently.”
Peterson explained that he was disciplined in a similar fashion growing up, which "helped me become the person I am."
He said the incident taught him to not be judgmental of others.
“Just not to be judgmental towards people because after going through that and just seeing other people you know going through different situations as well, just like, man, you should really find out the details and, you know, before you sit there and start persecuting people and judging people,” Peterson said. “Just leave it up to the one person to judge.”