Minnesota Vikings football fans have long admired running back Adrian Peterson for his toughness, his intensity, his ability to turn any play into a touchdown.

Today, that admiration is shaken. Peterson is not playing for the Vikings today, as he faces charges in Texas that he abused his four-year-old son earlier this year, punishing him with a switch in a punishment that raised welts and cuts on the boy’s legs, back and scrotum.

People can talk about a parent’s right to discipline their children as they see fit, or about how Peterson himself grew up getting similar “whuppings,” that he is, as his attorney said, a “loving father” who “never intended to harm his son.” They can talk about letting the legal system take its course before passing judgment.

But the fact is, Adrian Peterson has fallen from grace among his fans. The idea of someone who is so physically intimidating he can make opposing defensive players flinch on the field standing over a four-year-old child and whipping him with a stick is a hard image to forgive.

And with the Ray Rice situation forcing the NFL to revamp and toughen its domestic violence policy, it would seem likely Peterson will be subject to at least a long suspension, or could possibly even be cut by the Vikings, as the Ravens did with Rice.

It would be a sad, unexpected end to an admirable career in Minnesota, if that happens. But it will be Peterson’s doing.