One of the most interesting matchups of opening week in the NFL is New Orleans’ visit to Minnesota on Monday night. A key subplot in that game will be Adrian Peterson facing his former team, for which he is the all-time rushing leader.
Peterson threw down the gauntlet leading up to the game by saying, "Going back to Minnesota, playing the Vikings? Yeah, I want to stick it to them.”
Saints coach Sean Payton likely was not pleased with Peterson's challenge issued to a Vikings defense that ranked third in the league last season. And how much of an opportunity will Peterson actually have to "stick it" to the Vikings when, at 32, he's probably the Saints’ third best back behind Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara? This is hardly the first time Peterson has made inflammatory — or shall we say stupid — comments.
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Peterson last year talked about how bored he was in Vikings OTAs and training camp after he had played only one game in 2015 due to the repercussions from child abuse charges. And he added that he could retire from his then-$12 million job due to this imposition of having to sit in meetings and attend practices.
Poor Adrian. He wanted us all to feel sorry for him.
And he never really grasped the public outrage surrounding the photos that were released of his four-year-old son with bruises all over his body. Peterson claimed he was only disciplining his child the way he was punished as a kid. He wondered why the Vikings' sponsors were upset, why the NFL was suspending him and why the governor of Minnesota called him a "public embarrassment to the team and state."
I've called Peterson one of most obtuse athletes I've ever observed. And his latest comments only reinforce that impression.
Talk about revisionist history. Peterson actually wants us to believe it was his choice to leave the Vikings after his woeful, injury-filled 2016 season in which he earned $12 million while rushing 37 times for 72 yards.
The Vikings wisely dumped him after the season, choosing not to pay him the absurd $18 million he was scheduled to earn in 2017. The Saints are paying him $3.5 million in salary and bonuses this year, and he will have to be highly productive in order to return in 2018, when he has no guaranteed money in the second year of his deal.
When Peterson claims it was his call to leave Minnesota, saying, "The decision to want a change of scenery was due to what transpired two years ago," it’s his way of saying the Vikings didn't stand up for him as a child abuser. But they did in fact bring him back the following season.
Furthermore, it's ridiculous for Peterson to want us to believe he would not be in Minnesota had the Vikings agreed to pay him more than what New Orleans offered. The truth is there was virtually no market for Peterson due to the double whammy of him being considered an injury risk with off-field baggage.
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About his laughable comment about sticking it to the Vikings: Maybe Payton put him up to it as a ruse to try and get coach Mike Zimmer and the Vikings D to focus on Peterson rather than the Saints' potent passing game led by future Hall of Famer Drew Brees. But Payton knows Zimmer and defensive coordinator George Edwards are too smart to fall for such subterfuge, so we're back to this being a case of Peterson talking nonsense once again.
The Saints’ Peterson signing never made much sense to me. Payton and Brees want the Saints' running backs to be equally adept as runners and receivers out of the backfield, and Peterson has never been considered a dual threat. In fact, he has had more than his share of dropped passes over his career. During his Vikings years, Peterson typically exited the game on obvious passing downs.
Ingram is a former first-rounder who had the best season of his six-year career in 2016 with 1,043 rushing yards along with 46 receptions for 319 yards and a combined 10 touchdowns. Kamara was a third-round pick in April after the Peterson signing, so the Saints clearly coveted him and his history as a multi-purpose back in college.
Peterson could get a fair amount of play time if Ingram gets hurt — he's missed 12 games over the past four seasons. So Peterson appears to be more of an expensive insurance policy than a player who is going to get enough touches to stick it to anybody, much less his former team in the season opener.
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It's sad when a formerly great player such as the seven-time Pro Bowler and three-time league rushing champion plays out his final years as a shadow of his former self on the field and as a subject of ridicule off the field. It would be nice to be able to root for Peterson to continue his climb up the NFL career rushing list (he currently ranks No. 16) while hoping he finally makes it to a Super Bowl. But his obviously over-sized ego, along with his shaky off-field reputation, precludes many from being the Peterson fans they were earlier in his career.
So here's hoping the ones doing the "sticking" come Monday night in Minneapolis are the likes of Vikings defensive Pro Bowlers Everson Griffen, Harrison Smith and Xavier Rhodes.
Maybe that will shut Peterson up, but I doubt that will ever happen. He has proven time and again that he'll say and do whatever he wants with no concern for how it affects his team or his legacy.
Jeff Diamond is the former president of the Titans and the former vice president/general manager of the Vikings. He was selected NFL Executive of the Year in 1998. Diamond is currently a business and sports consultant who also does broadcast and online media work. He is the former chairman and CEO of The Ingram Group.
Follow Jeff on Twitter: @jeffdiamondNFL.
