Adrian Peterson

Adrian Peterson (born March 21, 1985, Palestine, Texas, U.S.) is an American professional gridiron football player who is considered one of the finest running backs in the history of the sport.

Peterson dedicated himself to football at a young age, in part as an outlet for his anger over his traumatic childhood—when he was 7 years old, he saw his brother killed by a drunk driver, and his father was sentenced to 10 years in prison for laundering drug money when Peterson was 13. He was nicknamed “All Day” (later often shortened to “A.D.”) by his father for his relentlessness as a child. Peterson was considered one of the top high-school prospects in the United States. He accepted a scholarship to the University of Oklahoma, where in 2004 he established a national Division I-A (collegiate football’s top division, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision) freshman rushing record by running for 1,925 yards, as well as scoring 15 touchdowns. He finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting that year and was named a consensus All-American. Although he missed time in each of the two following seasons because of injuries, he nevertheless was the most-coveted running back of the 2007 National Football League (NFL) draft class after he decided to forgo his college senior season. At 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 metres), he was tall for a running back, and his long sprinterlike strides were complemented by his impressive strength, resulting in a near-ideal speed-power combination for his position.

Peterson was selected by the Minnesota Vikings with the seventh overall pick of the 2007 NFL draft. He made an outstanding impression in his first season, rushing for 1,341 yards and 12 touchdowns and setting an NFL single-game rushing record of 296 yards (against the San Diego Chargers) en route to earning Offensive Rookie of the Year honours and an appearance in the first of four straight Pro Bowls. He continued to rack up solid seasons, with 1,760 rushing yards in 2008 and 18 touchdowns in 2009.

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During Minnesota’s penultimate game of the 2011–12 season, however, Peterson suffered tears to the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee, an injury that is often career-threatening, particularly for running backs. He underwent surgery on December 30, 2011, and—despite the fact that full recovery from the type of knee injury that he sustained usually takes a full year—Peterson returned for Minnesota’s season opener on September 9, 2012, and rushed for 84 yards and two touchdowns. That game was just the first in an outstanding season in which he rushed for 2,097 yards (just eight short of Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 yards) and 12 touchdowns en route to earning both NFL Most Valuable Player and Offensive Player of the Year honours.

Peterson failed to repeat his extraordinary production the following season, but he still amassed a solid 1,266 yards and 10 touchdowns. One game into the 2014–15 season, Peterson was charged with felony child abuse in Texas for allegedly hitting his four-year-old son with a switch and was subsequently barred from all team activities until his legal situation was resolved. In November 2014 he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of reckless assault and was suspended by the NFL for the remainder of the season. Peterson returned to the field in 2015 and rushed for a league-high 1,485 yards and 11 touchdowns, as the Vikings won 11 games and a division title only to lose their opening playoff contest. He suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee during the Vikings’ second game of the 2016 season. Peterson came back for the team’s 14th game but was ineffective in his return and was sidelined for the rest of the season, totaling just 72 yards rushing with zero touchdowns. He became a free agent in the following off-season and signed a two-year contract with the New Orleans Saints. Peterson played just four games with the Saints—totaling 81 yards on 27 rushes—before he was traded to the Arizona Cardinals. He had better results in Arizona, averaging 74.7 yards per game in six contests before a neck injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season. Peterson was released after the 2017 season and remained unsigned until shortly before the beginning of the 2018 season, when he joined the Washington Redskins for the league minimum salary. With Washington, he surprisingly rushed for 1,042 yards and 7 touchdowns that season. In 2019 he rushed for 898 yards and five touchdowns for the 3–13 Washington team. Peterson was released by the team shortly before the start of the 2020 season and was quickly signed by the Detroit Lions.