Adrian Peterson still owes $60,000 to Castrol after the motor oil company canceled its contract with the former star NFL running back when he was hit with a child abuse charge in 2014, new court papers allege.
The 37-year-old free agent – who last season played for the Seattle Seahawks and the Tennessee Titans – signed a deal in 2013 to “publicly promote” synthetic car oil Castrol EDGE, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Wednesday.
But Castrol canceled the deal — and demanded Peterson return part of the advance on the canceled contract — after the football player was indicted for allegedly hitting his 4-year-old son with a wooden spoon, the suit says.
The company nixed the deal under a clause in the contract that gave them an out due to embarrassment or scandal.
Peterson allegedly never paid the pro-rated refund to Castrol, so the company took him to arbitration in June 2020 and won the next year. His management company — Adrian Peterson All Day Inc. — still owes Castrol a $60,540 arbitration award and fees from 2021, the lawsuit charges.
“To date, [Peterson’s company] has failed to pay the award, in whole or in part,” the filing states.
Castrol is asking a judge to force Peterson to pay the award, plus 9% interest.
Peterson, the NFL’s fifth all-time leading rusher, skirted jail time after he pleaded no contest to a charge of reckless assault in Texas in November 2014. He was fined $4,000 and ordered to take parenting classes and do 80 hours of community service.
He claimed he never meant to hurt his son – who reportedly suffered cuts and bruises on his back, thigh and on one testicle — and said he was disciplining the child as he had been growing up.
Peterson made headlines earlier this year when he was arrested for domestic violence. The charges from February were dropped when his wife, Ashley, said Peterson never hit her.
Lawyers for Peterson didn’t immediately return a request for comment.
A rep for Castrol declined to comment.