Ray Rice

A Texas prosecutor says a grand jury backed a child abuse charge against Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson after it spent several weeks reviewing "lots of evidence."

Montgomery County prosecutor Phil Grant said Saturday that parents are entitled to discipline their children, but that grand jury members felt Peterson went too far after they looked at the child's injuries.

Peterson is charged with causing injury to a child for allegedly spanking one of his sons with a wooden switch on or around May 18. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to two years in prison and fined up to $10,000.

Peterson was booked and released from a Houston-area jail earlier Saturday. The Vikings benched him for this weekend's home opener against the New England Patriots.

Peterson is out for Week 2 and probably longer as the Star-Tribune says that it’s likely that the league takes further discipline on Monday. The NFL was criticized heavily for the two-game suspension that Ray Rice received for knocking out his fiancé in Atlantic City, so our guess is that Peterson will be hit with a tougher suspension. It’s not clear whether the NFL will wait for the case to run its course, but it doesn’t sound like it will. The Vikings could also suspend him as well. The bottom line is that there is no concrete timetable for Peterson’s return. He could miss four games or even the entire season. His owners can choose to get what they can for him via trade, or cut him to the waiver wire on moral grounds. Just know that it’s possible that he returns to the team if he admits fault, apologizes, seeks therapy and works out a deal to continue playing while his case makes its way through the legal system. Owners who are seeking a trade may have to take what they can get for him, but our reluctant guess is a RB2/WR2 type.