Dancing With the Stars pro Sharna Burgess might be absent from competing this season, but it doesn’t mean she doesn’t have opinions. The past winner most recently competed alongside current beau Brian Austin Green and revealed on their joint podcast that there is one celebrity announced for Season 32 she would not dance with.
“There’s one person that I would love to share I’m really shocked is on there, which is Adrian Peterson, a football player,” Burgess admits on the podcast. “I had some people reach out to me and say, ‘Have you seen this? Do you know his history?’ I looked it up. The man has been charged with child abuse of his 4-year-old son, in the way that he punishes him. That is just devastating for me.”
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Burgess praised the rest of the cast that had been chosen but questioned Peterson’s inclusion given his controversial views on corporal punishment and his misdemeanor charge of recklessly assaulting his child in 2014. Peterson was indicted on the charges after it was revealed he used a “wooden implement” to discipline his 4-year-old son.
The former running back pleaded no contest to the charges and avoided jail time as part of a plea agreement. He was also suspended for a year by the NFL at the time. In 2018, Peterson also admitted that he still disciplines his son with a belt. “I had to discipline my son and spank him the other day with a belt,” Peterson told Bleacher Report in 2018. “There’s different ways I discipline my kids. I didn’t let that change me.”
“I’m telling you now if I walked into a room and that was my partner, I would turn around and walk right back out. There is no way – now being a mother – I would be able to stomach that,” Burgess added on the podcast. “But him aside, the rest of the cast looks incredible.”
Peterson is one of the many contestants revealed earlier in the week ahead of the new season’s premiere on Sept. 26 on ABC and Disney+. Tyson Beckford, Xochitl Gomez, Alyson Hannigan, Jamie Lynn Spears and Barry Williams are just a few of the names announced.
