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Aug 4 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday an arbitrator acted within his authority in upholding the National Football League's suspension of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, handing the league a new legal victory over disciplining its star players.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul, Minnesota, reversed a lower court ruling that had overturned the suspension that Commissioner Roger Goodell imposed in November 2014, and which was later upheld by arbitrator Harold Henderson.
Peterson was suspended indefinitely and fined six weeks salary, covering the remainder of the 2014 season, after he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault for hitting his four-year-old son with a switch in May 2014.