For the last eight years, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson has been considered one of the truly elite halfbacks in the NFL.
In a league that has seen the role of the every-down bell cow running back gradually diminish over the last decade in favour of multiple back sets and third down specialists, coming into the 2014 season Peterson was considered the best of a dying breed.
To his credit, Peterson has done his best to prove that the lone back still has a role in the NFL. The $100 million dollar contract he signed in 2011 was backed up by an MVP season in 2012, and the team and player seemed inseparable.
Now, it’s looking like Adrian Peterson and the Minnesota Vikings are that couple that just needs to get it over and done with and break up already.
Of course, neither the player nor the team would be in this position they are in today if Peterson hadn’t made the horrifying decision to beat his son bloody with a switch (a stick). The act cost him 15 games last season and put him squarely in the sights of an NFL hip deep in another domestic abuse-related PR scandal.
What resulted was a lame back-and-forth between player, team, and organisation. Peterson was deactivated by the Vikings and put on the NFL’s exempt list (allowing him to still be paid for the year, mind you), and while he almost returned before the end of the season, the league controversially decided to suspend him for the remainder of 2014. A court judge reinstated Peterson to the exempt list late February, with the question of whether he can actually play this season still in the air.
That doesn’t mean Peterson and the team can’t communicate, and quite a lot has been said by both parties, even if both have come across as painfully passive aggressive.
After letting the team know that he does not wish to remain in Minnesota, Peterson reportedly requested he be allowed to leave the team in February. Despite being on the hook for $13 million dollars for a player who doesn’t even want to play for them, the Vikings told Peterson’s agent that he’s not going anywhere.
Neither parties at this point had made a public statement, but everybody knew there was trouble on at home. The situation soon entered the realm of absurdity when the news broke that his agent, Ben Dogra, declined a dinner invitation with the Vikings’ general manager Rick Spielman.
Most recently, Peterson’s agent came out and stated that it was not “in the best interest of Adrian Peterson to play for the Minnesota Vikings”, and, more overtly, told USA Today that they “want out of Minnesota”.
The Vikings’ response was to simply remind everybody that Peterson is still by all accounts a member of the team, and that he is under contract.
Yep. This can’t end well.
The Vikings clearly want to keep the running back they paid $13 million dollars to touch the ball 23 times last year on the roster. But you have to wonder if they really should.
Never mind the fact that Peterson beat his child on the scrotum with a stick, something that I personally believe should see him never play another professional snap. He is a 30-year-old halfback with a nasty injury history that is due to earn around $46 million over the next three years. The NFL loved watching him come back from knee surgery to have a Hall-of-Fame calibre year, but there’s zero chance Peterson has another 350-plus touch season in him. That’s obvious.
Like all ageing NFL veterans, Peterson wants one final big contract, and at the very least he believes his current contract with the Vikings should include some more guaranteed money, something the team is loath to do. Finally, Peterson believes his team betrayed him when they (briefly) turned their backs on in him in 2014, so even if they got him back in a locker room, there’s always the danger of him being considered a distraction.
That said,he still has tremendous value to the team. Even if he lost his edge after almost a full year off (which might not be the case) Peterson would open up the field for second-year quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, giving them a solid shot at the NFC North. Teams would be forced to respect him and stack the box, creating match-up opportunities for the quarterback.
There’s been sniffs of trade interest too. The Arizona Cardinals supposedly wanted to give up a first-round pick for him, although they’re keeping their mouths shut and the Dallas Cowboys have also been rumoured to like the Texas native a lot. However, trade options are complicated by the running back’s insistence that he continue to be paid a top-tier salary.
It likely doesn’t matter, as at this point the team has given zero indication that they are willing to move him. As stated by head coach Mike Zimmer most recently, they’re staying firm with their child-beating diva of a halfback.
It’s the principle of it! He had a contract!
So here we are with a clearly unhappy couple dancing around each other, too proud to step aside for the other. Peterson is set to make a ton of money if the stays, and the team is set to clean up if they move him, but neither wants to pull the trigger.
It’s kind of awkward, really. And as we get closer to the season, it’s only going to get worse. Will they? Won’t they? Ugh. Just get it over and done with, please.
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