The Minnesota Vikings were one of the few NFL-related entities to receive public criticism from sponsors stemming from the Adrian Peterson child abuse case.
And now, the day Minnesota agreed to a restructured three-year contract with its star running back, one sponsor has dropped the team for good.
According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, the company that owns Radisson Hotels has officially dropped its sponsorship with the team.
“Sources say the Radisson deal was a one-year deal to put its logo on the Vikings news conference backdrop. Neither marketers of the Radisson brand nor the Vikings initiated an attempt to do another deal.
Before Tuesday’s announcement, there had been no business casualties from the NFL’s rough off-the-field run over the last year.”
Radisson had previously suspended its relationship with the Vikings after the child abuse case became public record.
As Rovell notes, this is the first business casualty stemming from the league’s vast amount of off-field issues over the past year-plus. Not even the Ray Rice situation ended in a company dropping its sponsorship from either the Baltimore Ravens or the National Football League.
Likely a pure coincidence more than anything else, the timing of the decision must be taken into account. While the language suggests that the one-year contract simply expired without either side looking to renew it, this is a rather interesting development on the same day Peterson was locked in to a Vikings uniform for likely the next two years.
Photo: USA Today Sports