Nicknamed "A.D.," short for "all day" when he was a hyperactive child, the 2004 Heisman Trophy runner-up refuses to run out of bounds. It's his all-day tough way of honoring those taken from him.
Feel his pain.
Peterson saw his older brother and best friend, Brian, 9, killed by a drunken driver, who ran him down as he rode his bicycle. Peterson, then 7, watched in horror.
Peterson's father, Nelson, who coached his pee-wee running back son to give as much punishment on the field as he got, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for laundering drug money. Peterson was 13.
The night before Peterson's Indianapolis scouting combine workout for 32 NFL teams, his half brother, Chris Paris, 19, was shot and killed in Houston. Peterson felt as close to Paris as he did to his biological brother.Once more, Peterson ran his wounded heart out for a fallen family member. He clocked between 4.38 and 4.40 seconds for 40 yards and performed well in positional drills. He solidified his status as a likely top-10 pick in the draft, arguably revealing more about his mental toughness than any psychological test or team interview could.
"Unfortunately, when tragedy strikes, the world doesn't stop," Cleveland Browns general manager Phil Savage says. "Adrian was able to go out and perform despite his loss."
And that wasn't all.
"Then, he came back on his pro day at Oklahoma and had a very impressive workout," Savage says. "He caught the ball extremely well, and not just out of the backfield. And it showed how well-rounded he potentially could be, even though at OU he was primarily used as a runner."
Peterson, who announced in January that he would forgo his senior season at Oklahoma, grew up in the small East Texas town of Palestine with big dreams of winning a Heisman Trophy and a national championship and becoming an NFL star.
He has matured into a rare combination of size (6-2, 217 pounds), game-breaking speed and power. But the 22-year-old's strongest intangible is what Sooners offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson calls A.D.'s "intrinsic drive."
What's a dislocated shoulder, which was popped back in by trainers, when you're fueled by your brother's memory and the knowledge that your teammates needed you to convert a critical third-and-short to secure a win against Texas A&M during your freshman season?
What's eight in the box stacked to stop you every Saturday when the man who instilled your love of the game watched all but the final two games of your college career from prison?
"Resilience is what I'm all about," Peterson says. "I run angry. Football allows me to take out some of my pain on the field.
"When I go out on the field, I just put it in my mind that I'm playing for my family."
Peterson used the same mentality at the scouting combine in the wake of Paris' death.
"Chris would have wanted me to go ahead and work out," Peterson says. "I had just talked to him a couple of days before. He told me it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and just take care of business."
Houston police are still investigating Paris' homicide, according to Peterson.
The drunken driver who killed his brother Brian was charged and sent to prison.
It was no consolation to Peterson, who lost a piece of his heart.
"Brian and Adrian were like twins," Peterson's mother, Bonita Jackson, says. "They were born 11 months apart, ran everywhere together and played football together. It was like a part of Adrian was just gone when Brian was killed."
But maybe part of Brian lives on in Peterson.
"Adrian's always been fast. But Brian was faster," Jackson says. "Adrian said to me once, 'Momma, I think when Brian died, I inherited his speed.'
"Brian was fast as lightning."
When he first put a football in his son's hands, Nelson Peterson taught 7-year-old Peterson to keep going forward, no matter what. The irony is that Nelson would be the one to impose one of the harshest tests of that coaching maxim.
Father and son stayed close despite the years, the miles and prison partitions that separated them.
Peterson was able to occasionally visit his father at the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana, Texas. They exchanged letters and spoke by phone before and after Peterson's games until Nelson's release last October.
"We were talking the other day, and Adrian said, 'Dad, do you need or want anything? Because there's nothing you could ask me for I wouldn't give you,' " Nelson Peterson says. "I said, 'Thank you, son. Daddy's OK now. I'm free and able to enjoy time with family again.'
"That's the greatest gift of all: To be here now and be able to help him through this draft process."
Those fall Saturdays watching No. 28 run for the Sooners were the only times the father felt truly free in prison. His son gave him hope of better days together.
"Even though I couldn't be there physically to watch him play, in my heart and spirit, and in his heart and spirit, I was there," Nelson says. "To have the opportunity to watch him run on Saturdays, that was the extra motivation that helped me get through my time."
The son, who never turned his back, remains proud of the father who has turned his life around.
"My dad means a lot to me," Peterson says. "He's the one who put a football in my hands. We have a close relationship. And we maintained it during the time he was incarcerated.
"He was always writing, giving me advice, telling me to turn my shoulder this way or saying I needed to make good decisions in my young life growing up."
Nelson conceived A.D.'s nickname. "I've got the copyright on that one," the father says with a laugh. "I gave that nickname to him when he was 2, 3 years old. Adrian was always into something."
Even as a child, Peterson stood out from the crowd.
"Other kids his age would take a nap," Nelson says. "He'd keep running and running. Adrian always had this everlasting energy. But when he ran and fell down, I taught him no pain.
"Kids always look back for their parents to see how they react when they fall. Adrian always picked himself up.
"He's a tough kid."
Peterson will run over tacklers as often as he leaves them grabbing air.
"It's my fault Adrian runs the way he does," Nelson says. "I taught him how to take contact. Now I tell him he shouldn't take so much.
"I had a guy run at him, and taught Adrian to run to the middle — showed him how to meet force with force."
Now Peterson is the most dynamic running back force in this draft, the progeny of a college shooting guard and a high school track star who earned a scholarship to the University of Houston.
"I ran the 100, 200 meters and did the long and triple jump," Jackson says.
"Speed is in Adrian's genes. I see myself in him. He gives that same look I do when he runs, hooking his neck as if it's making him faster. I love watching him run."
Peterson ran for 4,045 yards and 41 touchdowns, finishing third on Oklahoma's career rushing list despite playing in only 31 games.
He set an NCAA Division I-A freshman record with 1,925 yards in his Heisman runner-up campaign in 2004. He rushed for 1,108 yards his sophomore year when he missed all or part of four games with a high ankle sprain. He missed seven games last season after breaking his collarbone when he was tripped up nearing the end of a 53-yard touchdown run and landed awkwardly in a 34-9 win against Iowa State on Oct. 14. He returned to play in the Fiesta Bowl where he gained 77 yards and scored two touchdowns against Boise State.
"This running back might be the best back I've ever seen coming out of college," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden says. "This is a punishing guy.
"This guy won't go out of bounds. Every time he carries the ball, he tries to hurt you. Bad. And he's fast and mean as hell."
Nelson Peterson said he started selling crack cocaine for an East Texas ring despite holding a respectable job after his NBA dream ended abruptly. A gun Nelson's brother was cleaning discharged, and Nelson, a rising star at Idaho State, was accidentally shot in the leg. He spent the next three years in and out of hospitals, saving his leg from infection.
"I made honorable mention All-American," Nelson says. "I went against John Stockton when he was at Gonzaga. I played in The Great Alaska Shootout against (former Maryland star and Boston Celtics first-round draft pick) Len Bias."
But with 10 children to support, Peterson chose easy money and paid a harsh price.
"I had a little feeling of entitlement, caught up with the fact that, after I injured my leg, my basketball career was over, and a lot of the things I wanted to accomplish for my family financially I couldn't anymore," he says. "I just got in with the wrong crowd, doing things I shouldn't have done."
He talks to schools now, spreading an anti-drug message.
"I'm here today to give you a lot of information on things you don't know; this is how it's going to be when you sell drugs like I did, and you get caught and go to prison," he says.
"So many people want to tell you what you should and shouldn't do, and if you do this, you can wind up in prison or in the graveyard. Three quarters of those people have never experienced any of it."
But Nelson knows.
"I've experienced the good, the bad and the ugly.
"The thing I learned from my time in prison is that it's about who is there when the road is hard. Nine times out of 10, it's your family."
Peterson is a father himself. His 2½-year-old daughter, Adeja, is the love of his life.
"She's just like me," Peterson laughs. "Adeja is a bundle of energy.
"She's starting to understand that I'm a football player. If there's a football laying around, she'll pick it up and run with it."
And Adeja has only fortified Peterson's love of the game.
"Football is 10 times more important to me now. I have to be able to provide for my little girl. I want her to live a good life and want to make her proud of her dad."
Durability. It is the biggest question some talent evaluators have concerning a big back reminiscent of Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson. Peterson runs so upright and hard that "he might make himself more of a target even to linebackers who will wind up doing people's taxes for a living," NFLDraftScout.com senior analyst Rob Rang says.
Rang says some teams will red-flag Peterson.
"The big knock on him is the durability issue," Minnesota Vikings vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman says. "Because he's a taller back; because he has an upright running style; because he runs 1,000 miles an hour. Is he going to hold up from a durability standpoint?
"I'm sure we'll talk about it."
So is Peterson injury-prone, or is there a flaw in his game that can be corrected?
"They're all legitimate injuries," Spielman says. "But is he getting those injuries because of his style of running? Or can you teach him maybe to lower his shoulder and be more patient as a runner?"
It won't be a worry for the team that selects a home run threat.
"Some pro scouts were asking, 'Why doesn't he run out of bounds?' " Wilson says. "I told them, 'He's not making $20 million here. He's on scholarship, and we coached him to try and put some fear in people trying to tackle him.' In the pros, guys play smarter and look out more for their longevity."
Wilson says Peterson will have to polish his pass protection and blitz pickups but insists he was unlucky, not injury-prone.
"Adrian doesn't have a chronic injury problem," he says. "He'd tote it 25-30 times on Saturday and be out there on Tuesday, Wednesday practicing with a high school kid's enthusiasm. He was a great practice player and a very tough kid."
It figures Peterson will be better off and absorb less punishment if he's integrated into a two-back system that eight of last year's 12 playoff teams featured. Even though Gruden already has Carnell "Cadillac" Williams, he says he'll consider Peterson if he's there when Tampa Bay picks fourth.
"Looking at the teams who win, you're looking at Corey Dillon and Laurence Maroney," Gruden says of the tandem the New England Patriots featured in 2006. "You look at Thomas Jones or Cedric Benson (2006 teammates with the Chicago Bears) and Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai (2006 running mates with the Indianapolis Colts).
"If you're going to run the ball 35 or 40 times a game, there's a lot of love to spread around if you've got two great backs."
The Oakland Raiders, Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, Buccaneers, Arizona Cardinals, Atlanta Falcons and Buffalo Bills have either worked Peterson out or expressed interest.
Many mock drafts link the Browns, picking third, to Peterson. The fact that Cleveland signed former Baltimore Ravens 2,066-yard rusher Jamal Lewis to a one-year free agent deal doesn't preclude them from taking another back.
Dublin, Ohio, native Brady Quinn, a four-year starting quarterback at Notre Dame, may be too tempting to pass on if he's available. But the Browns may also feel they're a top-notch running game away from making a legitimate turnaround by better supporting incumbent quarterback Charlie Frye.
"We have Jamal, but it's really a one-year situation, because we wanted to keep the option open if Adrian Peterson is there, or somebody else that we like," Savage says. "He's obviously got big-time speed. He's got burst, acceleration, and he runs hard every down."
Draft day will be more emotional for Adrian and Nelson Peterson and Bonita, who remarried Frankie Jackson, than for most prospects.
"Draft day for my family will be like winning the $300 million lotto jackpot," Peterson says. "God blessed my dad to be free. It'll definitely be a special, emotional day."
Their father-son bond has survived the toughest trial.
"It'll be a God-blessed moment," Nelson says. "To have the opportunity to see Adrian be drafted will be a blessing, especially after all the ups and downs we've been through."
The son wants to reward his parents for the speed, resilience and moral compass they instilled.
"I want to fly my dad somewhere he's never been before — the Bahamas or something — just so he can enjoy life again," Peterson says. "I want to buy my mom a house; the same for my dad. That will be the first thing I do when I get drafted."
Bonita is touched.
"If he's able to buy me a house, I'll thank God for that," she says.
"But if he's successful, that means more than any amount of money or house he could give me. Just to see Adrian accomplish all his dreams would mean the most.
"A lot of things that happened in his life, Adrian has used football as his motivation to overcome them."
It's a story darkened by tragedy but ultimately about family and possibility.
"He's a great talent, a good, grounded kid who loved to practice and work hard," Wilson says. "He was our franchise player. He could have been a prima donna, but he wasn't. … He kept his nose clean, which is unusual in this superstar era. I don't think he'll change. He's a credit to his parents and to (Oklahoma) Coach (Bob) Stoops, who preaches the importance of team."
And how will Peterson do at the highest level of pro football?
"The mountain is high for his upside," Wilson says. "It'll be interesting to see how far up the NFL hill he gets."
Where does Peterson hope to land?
"Wherever I go, it's about going in, working your butt off, doing whatever it takes to win and, ultimately, it's trying to be up there with the Walter Paytons," Peterson says. "I want to win four or five championship rings. That's how I dream. I dream big."
He's earned the right.
As Nelson says of himself, six months removed from serving nearly eight years in prison, "I don't look back. I bounce back."
The trait clearly runs strong through the Peterson family DNA.
By: Jim Corbett
http://www.wday.com/event/image/id/2130/headline/Adrian%20Peterson/
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