One tailgating Vikings fan reeled in a whopper of unwanted attention for Minnesota in the wake of last week's child abuse allegations against Viking superstar Adrian Peterson.
Yes, many fans arrived Sunday at TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis wearing replica Adrian Peterson jerseys, but one pregame celebrant threw in a prop: a stripped-down tree branch, an apparent nod to the tool of discipline that Peterson wielded on his 4-year-old son earlier this year, resulting in criminal charges.
The identity of the switch-clutching fan, her smiling visage dominating the cover of Monday's New York Daily News, has yet to surface. "Sick fans hail star who beat son with stick," reads the down-page headline.
The Getty Images photo taken by Hannah Foslien has been furiously passed around since Sunday afternoon on Twitter, Facebook and other social media, along with prominent display on the nationally popular Deadspin sports website.
Accompanying online comments range from jaw-dropping "how could she's?" to scrutiny of her late-20th century fashion choice of Zubaz pants.
"The hell is wrong with this woman?!?!!" wrote one Twitter commenter.
"Just no words. Way to represent MN. We need a paddy wagon to collect those people," another posted on Twitter.
The woman filled out her Vikings fan get-up with Helga braids, a horned helmet and an oversized strand of purple and gold beads. Yes, that's a Coors in her left hand.
A friend of the woman who was nearby said she was handed the stick by somebody and posed for pictures with some Patriots fans from the East Coast. "She thought this was being fun for this guy from New England," the friend said.
The woman did not know the significance of the branch, "not at that moment, when the picture was taken," the friend continued. " Then somebody told her. … It's too bad it got twisted around the way it has."
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
