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CNN NEWSROOM

Vikings Ban Adrian Peterson; Impact of War on Military Veterans; Impending Scottish Vote Regarding Independence from the U.K.

Aired September 17, 2014 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

A major reversal for the Minnesota Vikings. The team has decided star running back, Adrian Peterson, who's been charged with felony child abuse, should not be allowed to play ball after all. The Vikings previously said Peterson would be able to practice and play in Sunday's game.

In the meantime, the backlash from sponsors has already started. Just look at Anheuser-Busch. They're the latest sponsor to speak out about the NFL's recent controversies. In a scathing statement the company said this, quote, "we are not yet satisfied with the league's handling of behaviors that so clearly go against our own company culture and moral code. We have shared our concerns and expectations with the league."

So let's talk about that with CNN's Andy Scholes and our chief business correspondent Christine Romans.

Welcome to both of you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Hi.

ROMANS: So, Andy, was the NFL stunned by this?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: I'm sure -- they were probably pretty surprised but they definitely listened, Carol. You know, Anheuser- Busch is one of their biggest sponsors and when they came out, you know, and had that statement where they were -- basically said they were not happy with what was going on with the NFL, the NFL knew they were going to have to do something. I'm sure they talked to the Vikings and that's when the Vikings and Adrian Peterson basically came to this agreement to put him on the exempt commissioner's list, which means he can't come around the team until his child abuse case is resolved. He's still going to get paid, but he's going to have to just sit and watch until the whole thing gets resolved.

COSTELLO: Well, Christine, Anheuser-Busch, that's huge sponsor of the NFL. ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: This could really hurt the National Football League.

ROMANS: You know, look, money talks, Carol, it really does. And this is one of the biggest three sponsors of the NFL. And when you look specifically at how much money, it's $50 million in sponsorship, but they pay way more than that on marketing and advertising, and that allows the NFL to charge $5 billion for the broadcasters to carry its games. So it's a lot of money and it really, really matters here.

When you look at the Radisson case from a couple of days ago, when you - you know, Radisson did not want its name associated with the Vikings for now. Now that -- a lot of people thought that was a one-off because the Radisson name was right there behind the GM when they benched him and then reinstated him and then benched him again. But this is something that Anheuser-Busch is very, very clear about, you've got to clean this up right now because people aren't talking about football, they're not talking about our products, they're talking about child abuse, NFL, child abuse. Those are things you don't want to be heard together.

COSTELLO: No. And, you know, I just -- I'm just thinking of all the commercial, the famous commercials, from Anheuser-Busch. The Clydesdales, right, during the Super Bowl. We always -

ROMANS: It's about family.

COSTELLO: Right.

ROMANS: It's about fun. It's about cheering together. It's not a public debate about whether you should switch your child until he's bleeding in the thighs. That's not the kind of thing that they want their name and money associated with. And they're very clear, I think, sending a very clear message to the NFL, we are not satisfied. Fix it.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Andy, some football players say that Anheuser- Busch's statement smacks of hypocrisy, explain.

SCHOLES: That's right. Yes. Arian Foster is a running back for the -- my Houston Texans, by the way. And, you know, he's very outspoken. He doesn't like speaking to the media in person any more but he does get on Twitter a lot to let everyone know what he's thinking about. And he posted the statement from Anheuser-Busch with the words right there, "lol, OK, alcohol company." He followed that with, "selling poison on that high horse." Then he said, "domestic violence and alcohol damn near synonymous."

Now, he got hammered on Twitter for that one. But, you know, that's what he thought. He -- I guess he's kind of taking Adrian Peterson's side and that's - in that sense in the way he's saying, you know, an alcohol company shouldn't be bashing a guy's situation that Adrian Peterson is in.

COSTELLO: At this point in time, when tempers are flaring and, you know, emotions are high, don't you think these football - and I know they're trying to just support their friends, but don't you think they should, like, strive not to go on Twitter or on social media?

SCHOLES: I - yes. Yes, yes. I -- like Reggie Bush spoke out yesterday and his words were taken, you know, in a way he did not want them to be taken, I'm sure. I'm guessing a lot of people - and I'm guessing the teams are advising the players, hey, can we not speak about these things.

COSTELLO: Well, let's tell our viewers what Reggie Bush exactly tweeted in support of - no, he said it on a radio show, right?

SCHOLES: No, he said it.

COSTELLO: Was that where it was? And he was - he said support of Adrian Peterson?

SCHOLES: Yes, he said he would harshly - he would harshly discipline his one-year-old daughter if she did things wrong. And, you know, that was -- it's been - people have been running with it all day.

ROMANS: Wait -- and wait --

COSTELLO: Because you know those one-year-olds talk back a lot.

ROMANS: He said - and he said, I obviously would not leave any marks on her. And I kept thinking, is that how we parent now, we think, we've got to go just to the line before we actually -- we actually hurt the child so it leaves evidence. I don't think -- Andy, I don't think he meant it like -

SCHOLES: No.

ROMANS: I think he was defending his friend on a radio show -

SCHOLES: Yes.

ROMANS: And then he started to try to walk himself back.

SCHOLES: Exactly.

COSTELLO: And he couldn't do it.

ROMANS: But he couldn't do it.

SCHOLES: But he said something he didn't mean to say and then he tried to back track on it, but by then it had already sounded horrible and I'm sure he's not going to say another word about any of this going forward.

COSTELLO: I don't know but I hope he gains 200 yards in the Lions game this Sunday.

ROMANS: Carol.

SCHOLES: Exactly, Carol, because you're still going to watch the Lions this weekend, right?

COSTELLO: I know. I will. I will watch.

ROMANS: And that's the bottom line. You have - they're still watching football and you have really good game numbers. I mean it's not hurting what people are watching in terms of the NFL, it's hurting what people are saying about the NFL.

COSTELLO: Well, you can't indict every player in the NFL.

ROMANS: True.

COSTELLO: Most of them are great guys. So why should I stop watching?

SCHOLES: Exactly. And no one's stopping watching. We see that from the numbers from Thursday night football.

ROMANS: Yes. It's really good (ph).

SCHOLES: It was the highest rated game in the history of Thursday night football. Sunday night's game between the Bears and the Niner had the most audience ever for a West Coast game. I mean it's - their -- that's the evidence right there, all the NFL needs. You know, the sponsors may say they might not like what's going on, but are they going to pull out when everyone is still watching the games? I really don't think so.

COSTELLO: I don't know. Anheuser-Busch made a strong statement.

ROMANS: They really did.

COSTELLO: So we'll see. And good for them.

SCHOLES: But they want to sell Bud Light, Carol.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Andy Scholes, Christine Romans, thanks so much.

Of course it's been some of the worst weeks in the NFL. In addition to the Adrian Peterson controversy, the Ray Rice scandal has thrust domestic violence into the national headlines. Yesterday, Rihanna, who was herself a survivor of domestic violence, slammed last week's decision to pull her song from Thursday night football and I say good for her. She has given a voice to the anger that's been building up around this controversy. I write about that in a new CNN op-ed called "Rihanna is Right." Be sure to check it out and tell me what you think on FaceBook or tweet me @carolcnn. We're back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Joint Chiefs Chair General Martin Dempsey did not pull any punches. He will open the door to boots on the ground if they are needed to fight ISIS. If that happens, and the president says it will not, it will mean more tours of duty for our men and women. A mission many feel is cloudy and another war that does not ever seem to end. General Dempsey also made it clear our men and women are stretched thin and need financial support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. MARTIN DEMPSEY, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: As the situation in the Middle East evolves and continues to demand our attention, we're also balancing other challenging in other region, Ebola being the most recent, along with reassuring our European allies against Russian aggression and continuing our mission in Afghanistan. But our young men and women in uniform are doing so much more. They conduct hundreds of exercises, activities and engagements every day.

I am growing increasingly uncomfortable that the will to provide means does not match the will to pursue ends. The secretary and I are doing what we can inside the department to bridge that gap, but we'll need your help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, more money for more missions and we still have problems with returning veterans. Consider the facts, the Department of Veterans Affairs says between 18 and 22 veterans commit suicide every day. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. That adds up to 8,000 veteran suicide deaths a year.

Let's talk about that with Terry Lyles, he's a psychologist and combat stress coach, and Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain and former State Department official in Afghanistan.

Welcome to both of you.

TERRY LYLES, PSYCHOLOGIST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: And thanks for being here.

Terry, those statistics are unbelievable and PTSD has been diagnosed in veterans from wars dating back to Vietnam. Why are the PTSD rates and the suicide rates so high among our soldiers?

LYLES: You know, I think it's because of some of the lack of debriefing when they come back of what's really going to happen to them. I typically say the military does a great job on training our warriors to go to war and we don't do such a great job when we bring them back to tell them what reality's going to be after they cycle out of the military. And like you said, with a suicide rate of almost one an hour every day, 8,000 - 8,760 a year, or thereabouts, that's a lot of fatalities.

I was walking through Atlanta Airport last night, Carol, and I saw over 100 young, new recruits heading off to the Army for their boot camp and I thought, one in five of them, if they survive the war and the deployments and their career in the Army or Navy, Air Force, Marine, will end up taking their life. One in five will take their lives as a vet. And I thought how sad that is that we can't get our arms around how tragic this reverberation of trauma is inside of these warriors.

COSTELLO: Matthew, you served. Did you serve more than one tour of duty, like many soldiers have?

MATTHEW HOH, FORMER MARINE CORPS CAPTAIN: Good morning, Carol. Thanks for having me on. And really glad you are talking about this topic.

Yes, I did. And I've been quite open in the last year about my own struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and moral injury.

And yes, the numbers that Terry talks about, the one in five, is quite shocking. You know, if you went to high school with somebody who served in Iraq or Afghanistan, or your neighbor's kid, or your kid went and served in Iraq or Afghanistan, they are three times more likely to kill themselves than their friends. And this is something that is -- I thinks it's been timeless. I mean, you can look at the works of Shakespeare. Shakespeare, in his works, talks about PTSD and the stress that returning soldiers have. But certainly, it's a really, very difficult problem that is decimating the ranks of the veteran community.

COSTELLO: And Terry, we've talked about this before off air, that because soldier does so many tours of duty, they go onto the bat field and come home for a year and then they are redeployed and that really plays with their psyches, right?

LYLES: It does. As Matthew says, and thank you for your service, sir. It's very difficult, the more deployments you go on, it seems the tougher it is to really desensitize to what you have been exposed to. PTSD, very simply put is war trauma left inside of the mind, body and the psyche, if you will, and it becomes the new enemy, postwar. And unless we can get an exit wound for that type of trauma and that type of pain, warriors like Matthew that have served our country valiantly and bravely, end up with something that they live with the rest of their lives.

I mean, as simple as just fatigue and lack of sleep. You know, five days of interrupted sleep at some level decreases brain function by 40 percent, not to mention all of the other compensatory things like relationship problems and decision making. So this has a huge impact, not only on our warriors but our family of warriors and our society at large.

COSTELLO: Matthew, when you hear from General Dempsey that there might be a need for boots on the ground again, how concerned are you about the men and women serving?

HOH: Oh, absolutely. We haven't taken care of the guys came home from Iraq the first time, why should we have any confidence that they are going to take care of the guys who came back from Iraq a second time? And just real quick, since I have this opportunity, for anyone who's out there. Hey, look, my experience with PTSD and moral injury and alcohol abuse, I came close to killing myself. I was suicidal for years. Don't let it get to the point, like a lot of us do, that you've only got two choices, you know? And that's what happened to me. I hit rock bottom and I had two choices.

Thankfully, because I got help I'm still here. But if I hadn't got help, I would be one of those numbers that Terry, you know, Carol and myself have been discussing this morning. So, if you're out there you're listening, if there's a family member or friend, do all you can to get that service member help. And if you're the one who's suffering, know that a lot of us are like you. This is a medical problem and you can get your life back, but you need to reach out and, you know, for god's sake, don't wait until you hit rock bottom, like I did, and like so many others have.

COSTELLO: Yes. And you know, all the problems at the VA hospitals, they offer terrific services for soldiers suffering from PTSD and suicidal thoughts. Matthew, thank you so much for sharing your story. Terry Lyles, thanks for your insight. I am back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are less than 24 hours away from an historic vote to decide whether Scotland will break away from the UK. Tomorrow's vote has the potential to split up the union after nearly 300 years. An astounding 97 percent of those eligible to vote have registered to take part in the referendum. Comedian John Oliver sums it up in a rather interesting monologue.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN OLIVER, HOST, LAST WEEK TONIGHT: When most American people think about Scottish independence, they tend to picture this.

MEL GIBSON, ACTOR, BRAVEHEART: They may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!

OLIVER: Oh, yes, nothing screams Scottish freedom quite like a millionaire Australia anti-Semite on horse back. So let me bring you up to date here. Scotland is currently a member of the United Kingdom, which is not a country. It's actually a complicated political and economic union. Think of it as a archipelagic super- group comprised of four variously willing members. And to understand why Scotland may want to leave, you really need to understand the history of its relationship with England.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For centuries England and Scotland remained separate and frequently at war. But in 1707 they formed a single country, Great Britain, a decision that's been controversial in Scotland ever since.

OLIVER: Yes, I'd say it's still controversy given that, as you can see here, we are still role-playing with wooden swords to try and emotionally work through it.

(END VIDE TAPE)

COSTELLO: See, that summed it up, right, Max Foster?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That was brilliant. He's done it all for me. It really is a date with destiny, Carol. I have to say, the weight of history is on voters' shoulders. But you know they're quite worn down by it as well. Two years of debate around this and still something like 10 to 17 percent depending on the poll are undecided.

They don't know which way to go, because they're told on one hand, you know, the best thing for them is to bring power to Edinburgh and have your own country, on the other hand they are being told that actually it's too much of a risk you need to stay in the union.. So there's huge confusion about which way to go and both sides agreeing on one thing, that this is a decision which you can't go back on. David Cameron described it as a divorce not a separation. So a big day tomorrow for them.

COSTELLO: Max Foster reporting live from Scotland this morning. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. Happening right now, national security playing out all across Capitol Hill at this hour, watching three major hearings that all begin momentarily. On the left is the homeland security committee.

Their Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson is about to testify on how the global threats of terrorism could be reaching the shores of the United States. Not just from overseas, but from those born in this country as well. In the middle of your screen, the Benghazi select hearing. A committee created to investigate the security lapses and intelligence failures that led to the attack on the U.S. consulate in 2012. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

And on the right, the house foreign affairs committee looking into the growing Ebola crisis. The hearing comes one day after Senator Lamar Alexander says the epidemic is as big of a threat as ISIS.