Patrick Peterson has made first-team All-Pro three times, and he is one of just four players to be selected to seven Pro Bowls in his first seven NFL seasons. The other three? Jim Brown, Emmitt Smith and Barry Sanders.
Yet Peterson believes his work on the field has not been appreciated as much as it should.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? 🤫
— Patrick Peterson /P2 (@P2) January 6, 2018
If a ball isn’t thrown your way, do ”experts” take notice? 🤫
Through all the disrespect and everything I accomplish on the field going unnoticed, I still smile. That will never change. #Truth pic.twitter.com/pvxLdo29EZ
— Patrick Peterson /P2 (@P2) January 28, 2018
How anyone would disrespect an athlete such as Peterson should be beyond comprehension. So why would it happen?
"I think it’s probably my personality," the Cardinals cornerback told Sporting News. "I think that's probably really why I get overlooked because I'm the good guy."
He says he doesn't cause problems or conflict and that he tends not to talk about others. Some have even gone so far as to call him, in his words, "Mr. Goody Two-Shoes." That perception is fueling Peterson so much that he says he's reaching levels of motivation he hasn't hit in years.
“I always played with an edge, I always play with a purpose,” he said. "But I haven't played with a chip on my shoulder since maybe 2013, but that chip is back on that shoulder now."
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The chip could not be returning at a better time. The Cardinals recently hired former Panthers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks as their new head coach, a move that excites Peterson.
"Whenever you have opportunities to get a new head coach, to me, it brings new energy, it brings new outlook on things because you really don’t know what to expect,” he said. “You really don’t know how things are going to unfold. It just makes, to me, you work that much harder to that common goal when you have a new head coach because all the odds are against you.
"Everyone’s going to have a new opinion. You have a new head coach so you’re not going to go to the playoffs, a lot of people are going to write you off, calling it a rebuilding phase, you know, this that and the other. Definitely looking forward to the new energy that coach Wilks is going to bring to the Arizona Cardinals organization.”
This week, Peterson will try to apply similar emotion and energy to his new off-field endeavor: broadcasting.
He is serving as the official media correspondent for AT&T AUDIENCE Sports, an exclusive channel on DirecTV, DirecTV Now and AT&T U-verse at Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis. He will be taking fans onto the red carpet at some of the hottest parties and interviewing A-list celebrities and athletes.
"I'm actually pretty excited about it, and it’ll give me something to start thinking about once I'm done with the game,” he said. "You see a lot of former football players on television and I think this smile won't look too bad on TV.”
Though this will be Peterson's broadcasting debut, his publicity team has been pushing him to accept this sort of opportunity for a while, and for good reason. He has shown off his on-camera ability in his interviews on The Dan Patrick Show, and he displayed the right on-air attitude when accepting his Walter Payton Man of the Year Award nomination from the Cardinals.
“I just love smiling,” Peterson said at the press conference in December. “I love putting smiles on people's faces.”
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Peterson says he is focusing on succeeding in his new broadcasting role, something that should be easier after he received advice from experts like Rich Eisen: Don’t ask yes-or-no questions, don’t hand over the mic, and learn from past interviews.
“I definitely have a couple in my mind that are definitely some ‘DO NOT ASK’ questions for sure,” Peterson said. “Like, ‘What did you eat for breakfast this morning?’ Who cares about that?”
Surely the fans looking forward to learn about the morning cuisine of players like Tom Brady and Malcolm Jenkins will be disappointed, but they can at least join Peterson in the things that he’s most looking forward to, such as the Jennifer Lopez performance at the DirecTV Super Saturday Party, and the outfits Peterson will wear. If his Instagram is any indication of what’s to come, it surely won’t be something to miss.