This is actually my first time checking out the "Around the NFL" forum and glad to see a far more intelligent and better debated version of this topic than I've seen in other places. This AP story turned my stomach when I saw the pictures, but I always wanted to learn from others viewpoints on this as there's a bigger divide here than the rest of the NFL's story lines of the past week.
It's a more difficult decision for the NFL when it comes to the proper punishment for Peterson. The child abuse versus discipline would be a harder one to decide for many because so many parents (of all races mind you) still do result to some sort of physical punishment like spanking and "switching" (admittedly, I haven't heard the term before, but was aware of the punishment), and it's hard to place an authoritative stance over all parents on how all must properly discipline and thus raise their children. The way one of us is raised can be completely different from the next, and we can all grow up to be good, respectable people with or without beatings. With all the decisions the NFL has had to make recently, this is one I'd have the hardest time deciding because you're going to get a serious backlash if you're too harsh or too soft.
Roger Goodell completely butchered the Ray Rice suspension and he knows it, the cover-up made him look even worse. So if he stays as commissioner for this decision he pretty much has to be spot on and ready to address either the anger of the media who might immediately label it too soft or other players who've already back Adrian having being raised the same way finding it too harsh. No matter what, this will be a decision that'll piss off a great number of people.
Having a 3-year old son myself, I can't fathom ever spanking or whipping him to the point of drawing blood. I grew up getting spanked plenty of times, but my wife is dead set against using that as a form of punishment in our household and wants to always be politically correct about it. Even last week when our son was actually throwing books at other kids in his daycare, she had put him in a corner until he realized what he did was wrong, got sad about it and then made him hug all the kids and say he's sorry. Obviously being our first kid, you hope you're raising them right and he grows up to be the man you'd envisioned - but you can take 20 different parents and put them in that same situation and they might all go about it a different method.
I can't stomach the fact that an NFL player disciplined his 4-year old son until he was bleeding, and now finding out he's done it to another kid as well. It's appalling to me that he'd let it go that far and I personally would like to see a real harsh punishment. But again, I need to understand the environment and realize that was an approach a parent decided on. I think when you draw blood you've crossed the line, and I'd hope that could be the norm for everyone to comprehend to put a line in the sand. But it's eye opening to see how many would disagree with me.