Adrian Peterson's Ridiculous 2012 Season

So, the dust has settled, the smoke has cleared, and the cliches have been all worn out for the 2012 season. The NFL Honors awards ceremony has just concluded taping in New Orleans (though it should be airing on CBS as you read this), but the big news of the night is that Minnesota Vikings' running back Adrian Peterson was named the National Football League's Most Valuable Player for the 2012 season.

Peterson had some things to say after receiving the award.

"It's truly an honor to be recognized as the league's most valuable player. While the award is considered an individual achievement, I couldn't have had the success that I did without my teammates, my coaches and the Vikings organization. I'm blessed to be a member of the Vikings, and I hope next year we can get the ultimate team award by bringing a Super Bowl championship to Minnesota."

Peterson becomes the third member of the Minnesota Vikings to win the National Football League's Most Valuable Player Award, joining Alan Page (1967 1971. . .thanks to Mel Allen for the correction. . .and the first defensive player to win the award) and Fran Tarkenton (1975). He's also the first running back to win the award since LaDainian Tomlinson did so in 2006, breaking a string of five consecutive quarterbacks winning the award.

Not long after the award was announced, Minnesota Vikings' PR guy Jon Ekstrom sent out an e-mail detailing all of Peterson's accomplishments this season. I'm out of superlatives at this point, so I'm just going to copy and paste them here for your reading pleasure.

Here are all the awards that Peterson won in 2012:

• Most Valuable Player - Associated Press
• Most Valuable Player - Pro Football Weekly/PFWA
• Bert Bell Award (Most Valuable Player) - Maxwell Football Club
• Co-Most Valuable Player - Pro Football Focus
• Offensive Player of the Year - Associated Press
• Ground Player of the Year - FedEx
• First-Team All-Pro - Associated Press
• First-Team All-Pro - Pro Football Focus
• All-NFL Team - Pro Football Weekly/PFWA
• 2013 Pro Bowl Starter - National Football League
• NFC Offensive Player of the Year - NFL 101
• Offensive Player of the Year - Pro Football Focus
• Offensive Player of the Year - Pro Football Weekly/PFWA
• Comeback Player of the Year - Pro Football Weekly/PFWA
• Fantasy Player of the Year - NFL.com

And here are the NFL records that Adrian Peterson set in 2012:

• 2nd most rushing yards in a Season: 2,097 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 2012
1st: 2,105 Eric Dickerson, Los Angeles, 1984
• Most rushing yards in any Month, Season: 861 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, December 2012
Old: 800 Chris Johnson, Tennessee, November 2009
• Most rushing yards in 10 consecutive games: 1,598 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 10/21/12 - 12/30/12
Old: 1,507 Earl Campbell, Houston, 10/12/80 - 12/14/80
• Consecutive games with a 60+ yard run: 3 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 10/25/12 - 11/11/12
Tied: 3 Michael Bennett, Minnesota, 11/3/02 - 11/17/02
• Most 50+ yard runs, Season: 7 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 2012
Tied: 7 Barry Sanders, Detroit, 1997
• Most 150+ yard games rushing, Season: 7 Adrian Peterson, Minnesota, 2012
Tied: 7 Earl Campbell, Houston, 1980

And here are the Vikings team records that Adrian Peterson set this season:

• Most rushing yards, Season: 2,097 Adrian Peterson, 2012
Old: 1,760 Adrian Peterson, 2008
• Most 100+ rushing yards in a Half, Season: 6 Adrian Peterson, 2012
Old: 5 Adrian Peterson, 2008
• Most 200 yard games rushing, Season: 2 Adrian Peterson, 2012
Tied: 2 Adrian Peterson, 2007
• Most 150 yard games rushing, Season: 7 Adrian Peterson, 2007-12
Tied: 3 Adrian Peterson, 2008
• Most 100 yard games rushing, Season: 10 Adrian Peterson, 2012
Tied: 10 Adrian Peterson, 2008
• Most rushing attempts, Career: 1,754 Adrian Peterson, 2007-12
Old: 1,627 Bill Brown, 1962-74
• Most rushing yards, Career: 8,849 Adrian Peterson, 2007-12
Old: 6,818 Robert Smith, 1993-00

And, lastly, here are the team records that the Vikings set in 2012 thanks (largely) to Adrian Peterson's exploits:

• Most rushing yards, Season: 2,634 in 2012
Tied: 2,634 in 2007
• Highest rushing average, Season: 5.4 in 2012
Old: 5.3 in 2007
• Most rushing yards per game, Season: 164.6 in 2012
Tied: 164.6 in 2007
• Most 100 rushing yard games by player, Season: 10 in 2012
Tied: 10 in 2008

Yeah. . .that's pretty good. I think he deserved the award, don't you?