Report: Adrian Peterson Feels Unappreciated By Vikings

Sometimes, somebody says something that makes you scratch your head and wonder why. Then there are times when someone says something so profoundly ridiculous that your reaction is a bit more severe.

This falls firmly into the latter category.

Since we’re into the “legal tampering” period of free agency, people are speculating where various players might end up. In the case of running back Adrian Peterson, soon to be a former member of the Minnesota Vikings, apparently those destinations include the Seattle Seahawks and the Oakland Raiders.

According to Chris Tomasson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Vikings apparently haven’t made Peterson an offer yet, and it appears that his feels are hurt.

Seriously. . .how, after everything that Peterson and the Vikings have been through, can his camp drop the “unappreciated” card?

I realize that I’m basically throwing up the purple and gold equivalent of the BatSignal with this. . .seriously, we could have footage of Adrian Peterson tossing puppies into a wood chipper, and at least one person would assure me that he was doing it to make the world safer for cats everywhere. But the limitations of the English language prevent me from accurately expressing just what a ridiculous assertion this is.

Over the course of his career with the Minnesota Vikings, Adrian Peterson has been the highest-paid running back in the history of the league. Of all of the players that have ever played the running back position, nobody has ever had more money deposited into their bank account by their employers than Adrian Peterson has. Yes, he’s won rushing titles. Yes, he won a rushing title as recently as 2015. In the two years that rushing title was sandwiched between, he ran for a grand total of 147 yards in four games. He made $12 million in each of those seasons. Yeah, he had to pay a fine in 2014. That was nobody’s fault but his, so I don’t care. He still got $12 million from the Vikings.

To say nothing of the way this team stood by Peterson in the wake of everything that happened in 2014. This team could have done a lot of things with Peterson. . .and what they ultimately did is to give him a contract extension that gave him more money. Now that they’ve decided that, at this point, a 32-year old running back coming off of knee issues isn’t worth (literally) twice as much as any other running back in the National Football League, suddenly the Vikings are unappreciative?

Fuggouttahere with that. Seriously.

Look, it only takes one team to have a General Manager lose their minds and give Adrian Peterson more than he’s worth at this stage of his career. It doesn’t appear as though the Minnesota Vikings are going to allow that team to be them. There’s certainly the possibility that Rick Spielman and company told Peterson to shop around and come back with his best offer to see if the Vikings were interested in matching it. But, if that was the case, why would Peterson’s camp (specifically his father, apparently) let something like this get out there?

Let’s just get free agency started so this can all play out and we can be done with it one way or another.