Adrian Peterson, 7 teams, 15 years, says 1 month with Seahawks was his best NFL experience
Adrian Peterson has been with seven teams over 15 NFL seasons.
The 36-year-old future Hall of Famer has played in 184 regular-season games plus five playoff games.
Peterson played in just one game with the Seahawks. A lower-back injury sidelined him the final five games of the season. He spent only one of his 176 months in the league with Seattle after signing onto its practice squad Dec. 1.
Yet one of the best, most accomplished running backs in league history says the experience he had in his short time with Seattle is the best of his legendary career.
“Oh, man, the experience was top-notch,” Peterson said Monday, the day after the Seahawks’ 7-10 season, and his cameo contract with the team, ended with an upset win at Arizona.
“You know, I’ve been blessed to play with a lot of different organizations. I can say this is definitely, probably, the best experience I’ve had. From ownership on down to ... the cafeteria. It’s good people.
“There’s a different mentality that I experienced coming into this building. With the team having the record that they had, just kind of seeing how the coaches and the players continued to approach each week, just really grinding and focusing on one week at a time and looking at it as another challenge, another opportunity, I mean, to get better.
“So, it was an amazing experience for me, and I really enjoyed it.”
Peterson played for the Minnesota Vikings as the seventh-overall choice in the 2007 draft through 2016, then for Arizona, New Orleans, Washington and Detroit. This season he played three games for Tennessee before the Titans released him in November.
The Seahawks called him on a Saturday in late November. Peterson was tailgating before watching his former Oklahoma Sooners play Oklahoma State in the annual college football rivalry game.
The following weekend, he was running across Lumen Field in Seattle scoring a touchdown to help the Seahawks beat San Francisco.
His tenure with the Seahawks goes beyond his 11 carries for 16 yards with his 126th career touchdown in Seattle’s home win over the playoff-bound 49ers Dec. 5.
Coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks really wanted to get Peterson that touchdown. It came on a 1-yard run in rare I formation, with Nick Bellore playing one of his handful of snaps as a fullback lead blocking this season. Bellore joked after the block and that game he didn’t think Peterson knew who he was when they were in the huddle just before the TD play. The score tied Peterson with legend Jim Brown for 10th in NFL history.
Peterson felt low-back pain after that game. He did not practice for the Seahawks the rest of the season. General manager John Schneider said Jan. 2 on the team radio network’s pregame show Peterson has a disk issue in his lower back.
Reviving Rashaad Penny
Unable to play, Peterson set out to make teammates better, particularly Rashaad Penny.
“I had time to, really, just reflect,” Peterson said. “I know there are reasons for everything. And I always try to take a positive out of a negative situation that I’m going through. So that’s when I was able to (take) the injury for what it was and look and see, what other reason could I be here?...
“Just to be able to influence guys and have an impact on the running-back room, and other guys, too. As sit in my locker room, guys would come up asking me different kinds of questions, or coming out asking, ‘Hey, how do you have this longevity? What are the things that you’ve done throughout your career? How do I approach this? How do I approach that?’
“It hit me. You are not doing what you envisioned, what you thought you were going to be doing when you came here, but you are still making an impact. ...
“One of the biggest people I was able to impact was Penny.”
In one month with Peterson, Penny went from struggling to come back from his sixth injury in four years without a contract or a sure future following this season to joining Shaun Alexander as the only Seahawks to ever rush for 130 or more yards in three consecutive games. Seattle’s first-round pick in 2018 absorbed Peterson’s advice on training, on attacking defenders before they can attack Penny’s reconstructed knee.
Peterson had the same knee injury Penny had in December 2019. Peterson’s was in December 2011. He then made what many consider the best return from a torn anterior cruciate ligament in league history: 2,097 yards rushing as the NFL most valuable player for the Vikings in the 2012 season.
“Which one is your injured knee?” Peterson said to Penny. “You attack them before they attack it.”
Penny attacked like never before. He followed his career high of 135 yards rushing last month at Houston with 170 yards Jan. 2 rampaging through the Lions, then 190 yards with the game-clinching, 62-yard touchdown sprint in the fourth quarter Sunday in Seattle’s finale at Arizona.
To hear Penny tell it, it’s no stretch to say Peterson revived the 25-year-old Penny’s career.
“He didn’t shy away. He didn’t shy away from asking questions and trying to pick my brain” Peterson said, chuckling. “And not only did he just ask, he acted off it, as well.”
The veteran calls Penny’s interest and taking his words to heart, and action, “just a blessing.”
Coach Peterson?
Seeing Penny transformed, Carroll approached Peterson at the Seahawks’ training facility in Renton recently and asked him if he’d be interested in coaching.
“It’s so obvious. I mean, it’s really, it’s one of the obvious impressions that someone can make,” Carroll said of Peterson’s short time with the Seahawks. “It was just — the coaches, the players, everybody — the way he jumped out here and the way he worked, for whatever reason it was just so complete. In his effort, in his focus and his intention to do the right thing, and all, that it just impressed everybody.”
To Carroll, that is the legacy Peterson is leaving in his one game and four weeks as a Seahawk.
“It does say a tremendous amount about him, his character, his makeup, his stature as a player, but also what he represents as a competitor,” Carroll said. “I mean, he’s the ultimate.”
Peterson had never considered coaching. He figured he’d continue playing until he was ready to go home for good to Texas to be more with his wife and their kids.
“The funny thing is, I never really envisioned myself coaching,” Peterson said. “Not on this level or the college level. Maybe, like, my son’s Little League team, or something.
“But after talking to Coach Pete, it’s something that I’ve kind of been thinking about. I talked to my wife, as well. She was like, ‘Adrian, man, you are just a different person when you are around football, and it shows. So it’s something you should really think about and consider.’
“I’ve actually thought about it and considered going in that direction, if and when I’m done playing football.”
But not yet. Not at the end of his 15th year in the NFL playing a position the average career lasts only 2.6 years.
“As of today,” Peterson said, “I definitely look forward to playing again.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 12:58 PM.
