Adrian Peterson
Adrian Peterson
Adrian Lewis Petersonis an American football running back for the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Vikings seventh overall in the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Oklahoma. Peterson set the NCAA freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards as a true freshman during the 2004 season. As a unanimous first-team All-American, he became the first freshman to finish as the runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Peterson finished his college football career...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFootball Player
Date of Birth21 March 1985
CityPalestine, TX
CountryUnited States of America
A guy like Bruce Lee, I've always been a fan. How he used to be able to move and be so quick. You look at some of the exercises that he did, and it was all majority free weight, like standing on your hands. That works every muscle. Everything is firing.
When you think about little league football, high school, and even on to college even more so, you're dealing with a lot of guys that are prideful, that think they're the best - a lot of alpha males. So, typically, you've got to have a guy that can control those guys, and, when he talks, they know he means business. He's a serious guy.
I was always fast; I was always racing guys that were older than me and beating them, so I always had speed. I was able to make good cuts at a young age, on the side of the house with my dad, going through different plays, working on cuts and stuff like that.
It feels good when guys reach out to be inspired - and you have shown people an example of how you can come back and be better than you were before when adversity strikes; and when the world predicts the opposite, you show them you not only can be successful but be great.
I am starting to realize that a lot of guys look up to me, ... Older guys, and even younger guys, are asking me questions and [they] ask me about how to handle situations. Im young, but that leadership role has been on me so I need to live up to it.
You look at Ray Lewis, you look at Brett Favre. I know it's different positions, but you think about the mental mindset it takes to continue to grind and play at a high level. Those are the guys that I look at that motivate me.
I have to continue to be a great leader and contribute in any way that I can, and get guys to follow suit. That's how you turn a team around.
There was no doubt in my mind that we were going to get it, ... The guys out there, they were going to bust their butts for that one yard, and we got it. We got more. We got the touchdown.
Sometimes I sit back and think, 'Is this really happening?'
To be honest, I'm kind of shocked. They just threw a monkey up in here or something like that.
We came out there and we played smash-mouth football,
I would sacrifice 1,000 yards rushing to win a Super Bowl. But I want to be the first back to have back-to-back 2,000-yard seasons.
I'm all into my rap grooves. I'm checking out artists like Lil' Wayne and Trick Daddy.
With everything else that's happened to me, it was a pretty dumb injury. We were celebrating in the end zone when I took my helmet off. Manuel ran by and caught me on my forehead. It just started bleeding.