Adrian Peterson has opened up about his past. When it happened, I wondered if Peterson would see the field again because of how the Ray Rice situation went down. Apparently Peterson wondered the same thing. Sports Illustrated had the quote:
“I thought about retirement. I was serious, man. It was just like an emotional roller coaster that I was going on. Being angry with the NFL for how things were handled, with the organization and the judicial system as well. . . . After I’m like, O.K., I finally got this behind me, they come back and switch it up. I was like, Wow. It just went to show how politics and how people will cover themselves. . . .Cris Carter, he had so much to say. In that stage, if I would have seen Cris Carter, I probably would have slapped the taste out of his mouth. Because that was the mind frame I was in. I wouldn’t have done it. But I wanted to.”
At certain points Peterson contemplated retirement and what his backup plan would be:
“At his lowest points during his exile, Peterson wanted to quit football. Inside the Vikings’ cafeteria one day this fall, Peterson, whose mother was a high school state track champion, detailed the backup plan he hatched: He wanted to become an Olympic sprinter. He was serious, too. He met with Michael Johnson, the four-time gold medalist, in Dallas. Another world champion, Maurice Greene, offered to help him train.”
Ultimately, Peterson returned to the NFL, even to the Vikings after his family expressed interest to play closer to home in Texas. With so many cases of corruption in the world and even the NFL, you should be glad Peterson made it back to the NFL.