It's surprising that the Waffling Wilfs have looked so conflicted and confused on their twisted journey to finally suspending Adrian Peterson.

Even if Peterson had maintained the façade of an honorable athlete, the Wilfs were going to have to consider dumping him in a few months. In the NFL's brutal calculus, Peterson's admission to police that he beat a child bloody might change only the timing and terms of his departure.

The Vikings are paying Peterson while he's on the exempt/commissioner's permission list, so he will stay away from the team without fighting the suspension through the union or the courts. They suspended him only after sponsors threatened their profit margins. They now know that bringing Peterson back this season will create the same problems with sponsors, and will again attract satellite trucks to Winter Park.

Peterson is 29. The list of modern running backs who have thrived past the age of 30 is shorter than a Zygi Wilf speech. Peterson is making about $14 million a year on a contract that runs through the 2017 season.

Peterson plays a position devalued by the NFL. As soon as he showed signs of aging, or being slowed by injuries, the Vikings were going to release him, or trade him, or ask him to renegotiate his contract.

Peterson knows that. That may be why he called Cowboys owner Jerry Jones this summer, to lobby for future consideration. Jones is the rare NFL owner blinded by flashy names.

After an impressive opening-season victory at St. Louis, the Vikings were outclassed Sunday by New England. They may have lost the next four games even with Peterson in the backfield. Without him, the team's braintrust may soon be forced to view this as another rebuilding season.

When that happens, the Vikings will break in rookie quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, and try to develop other young players. They will prepare themselves to contend in 2015 and beyond.

Peterson was unlikely to be a part of those plans even before he beat his child.

That's what makes the Wilfs' cynical indecision so pathetic. Before Tuesday night, they were willing to destroy what is left of the organization's reputation not for a player in their long-term plans, not for a chance to win a Super Bowl this season, but to slightly increase their poor chances of winning this Sunday in New Orleans, and their poor chances of contending for a playoff spot.

If you were to sell your soul, wouldn't you like a better return than that?

The Vikings already have paid Peterson the money that is guaranteed in his contract, according to the salary website Spotrac. If they release him at the end of the season, they will save almost $50 million, while taking only a small hit to their salary cap.

Nobody in the NFL pays running backs $14 million a year anymore. Nobody in the NFL wants to depend on a 30-year-old running back. The Vikings overpaid Peterson because of his place in franchise history and the dearth of prime talent on the rest of their roster, not because of his true value to a modern franchise.

Now that Peterson is approaching 30, and is toxic to advertisers, and plays for a league reeling from its mishandling of players who harm women and children, the Vikings won't have to pretend to be conflicted when they cut him this winter.

They may even have learned enough about public relations by then to pretend that they are taking a belated stand against child abusers, just as on Wednesday they pretended that they cared about something other than victories and dollars.

Peterson's savagery eliminates the chances of the Vikings trading him, and eliminates the the slim chance that they would have paid him $14 million next year.

Unless the Wilfs are even daffier than they've demonstrated to date, that leaves only one probability: that the same people who on Monday couldn't stand the thought of Peterson missing another game will this winter cut him loose for good.

Jim Souhan can be heard weekdays

at noon and Sundays from 10 to noon on 1500 ESPN. His Twitter name is

@SouhanStrib.

jsouhan@startribune.com

Jim Souhan • 612-673-4503