David Leon Moore

USA TODAY Sports

After days of the NFL's top corporate sponsors holding firm through the league's embarrassing and controversial series of news developments, a crack in the support emerged Monday night.

The Radisson hotel chain announced it is suspending its sponsorship of the Minnesota Vikings because of star running back Adrian Peterson's indictment for child abuse in Texas.

"Radisson takes this matter very seriously, particularly in light of our long-standing commitment to the protection of children," the company statement said. "We are closely following the situation and effective immediately, Radisson is suspending its limited sponsorship of the Minnesota Vikings while we evaluate the facts and circumstances."

Radisson's logo normally appears on the backdrop at Vikings news conferences.

Major league-wide sponsors, meanwhile, such as Anheuser-Busch and PepsiCo, are not yet backing off their support of the league.

"I think the sponsors are monitoring this, but I don't think we've seen any negative effect on the league's business to date," says Irwin Raij, a sports industry expert and co-chair of Foley & Lardner's Sports Industry Team. "The shield, as the NFL likes to say, seems to be as strong as ever from a business standpoint."

Robert Tuchman, a sports business expert and president of sports and entertainment marketing company Goviva, says the NFL's move Monday to retain several women experts in the domestic violence issue is in part a move to protect its business side.

"They clearly have their sponsors in mind and are trying to turn a negative into a positive," Tuchman says. "The league actually has a great opportunity to turn this into something they can get behind and stay behind by taking a lead in addressing these issues. If they can do that, sponsors might want to even enhance their relationships with the league.

"But right now, everyone's on pins and needles hoping that the news doesn't get even worse."

Anheuser-Busch has declined to comment when asked its response to the Rice video or the indictment of Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for child abuse.

PepsiCo vice president of communications Jay Cooney, asked Monday if the company is wavering on its support of the league, referred to Pepsi's statement last week that said, "Domestic violence is completely unacceptable. We are encouraged to see the NFL is now treating this with the seriousness it deserves."

Raij says it's too risky for companies to cut ties with the NFL.

"These agreements are for long terms," he says. "If you leave and then come back at a later time, it might be more expensive. It might be more challenging. It might be a lot of things."

Raij says that sponsors having deals with individual players are more likely to distance themselves.

Rice, after the video of him punching his wife surfaced, was dropped by Nike and EA Sports.

And Peterson, who has appeared on Wheaties boxes, was removed from the cereal maker's web site Monday. A link to his profile on the "Team Wheaties" section was still active, but it produces a blank page.

A Wheaties spokesperson was not available for comment.

"Typically, you like to have morals clauses in deals like that, and you can invoke those," Raij says. "It's a little bit harder at the league level. For a company to leave Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson (indicted for alleged child abuse), that's not surprising. But leaving the league would be surprising as of now."

The NFL crisis is far different from the one that engulfed the NBA and particularly former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling this year. In that case, after Sterling's racially charged comments were made public, all the Clippers' major sponsors announced they were terminating their deals with the team. (They have returned since the Clippers were sold to Steve Ballmer.)

"It is much less clear-cut what took place in the NFL example," Tuchman says. "In the case of Sterling, it was very evident, pretty black and white. But this issue of domestic violence is not just an NFL issue. It's the entire country.

"The NFL has just become a lightning rod."