KEEP TALKIN’ ADRIAN, KEEP TALKIN’
Buried at the bottom of my bucket list, right above win a mirror ball trophy on Dancing with the Stars, is a desire I’ve been craving for nearly 40 years – watch the Minnesota Vikings win a Super Bowl World Championship. If I believe what Adrian Peterson is saying, and I have no reason not to, I just might be checking one of those items off my list in the near future.
Last year at this time, I was hearing Peterson say he was planning to come back better than ever by week one. My heart was telling me “that sounds great,” but my mind was focused on how good Toby Gerhart was going to play while filling the gap until I actually saw a healthy #28 on the football field. Little did I realize that Peterson was speaking the truth. Toby would be nothing more than an afterthought as Peterson chased Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record.
At the Pro Bowl, Peterson predicted he would win the NFL’s MVP award. He was right. On that special night in February when All Day accepted his MVP trophy… he told the world he was going to win it again next year, then looked at coach Frazier with a twinkle in his eyes and added, “I’m going to win the most important award, the team award, the Super Bowl.
A couple months later, Peterson told Maggie Gray of Sports Illustrated in a video interview, “I want a couple of rings. We’ve got to start at one and we need to get it this year. We have the potential to get to the Super Bowl and win. It’s all about coming together”. The big quote that stole the show was when Peterson said “I’m going to let the chips fall. I got my bar set at 2500 yards. If that happens, the record will be shattered.”
Adrian Peterson has earned the right to talk. In 2012, he had one of the greatest seasons in NFL history falling just nine yards short of Dickerson’s rushing title. Unfortunately for Viking fans, all the experts are saying Peterson’s goals can’t be reached. They say the odds are stacked against the Minnesota Vikings and their superstar. The consensus is the goals are simply too unrealistic even for the immortal Adrian Peterson.
Nope, I’m not buying that. No way. No how. ESPN and all the naysayers need to take notice. Adrian Peterson and the upstart Minnesota Vikings will contrive the greatest multi-game sports event since Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire battled it out for the MLB home run title in 1998. One thing is for sure, America will slow down this fall to soak it all in.
Keep talking Adrian. I believe. Coach Frazier and your young impressionable Vikings’ teammates believe… and the world will soon follow.
As Adrian speaks, so may it be written and so shall it be truth!