Flashback: Adrian Peterson sets NFL rushing record 15 years ago today

Every once in a while, yours truly gets a reminder of exactly how long this site has been around and what we’ve seen over the course of that time.

As it turns out, fifteen years ago today we were all witness to the greatest rushing performance in the history of the National Football League, as Minnesota Vikings rookie running back Adrian Peterson ran for 296 yards against the San Diego Chargers.

You can see every carry of that performance via the NFL on YouTube. Yes, I know it’s an inconvenience to have to go to another site to see it, but it’s basically the only version I could find that doesn’t look like it was filmed with a potato.

(And it won’t even let me embed the video here. Jeez, Roger.)

The 2007 season was the second season of The Daily Norseman’s existence, which means that the Game Threads really weren’t as big a thing as they eventually grew into. . .I’m not even sure how many other people were here because all the old comments have been purged. But we did see it and it did happen. It was so long ago that the Chargers didn’t even have a presence on SB Nation yet. . .our friends at Bolts from the Blue didn’t make their appearance until September of 2008.

I’ve mentioned this part of Adrian Peterson’s performance in this game before, but it’s worth noting that he only had 43 rushing yards at halftime in this one. He put up 253 yards in the second half, which by itself is a top-ten rushing performance in NFL history. And if he hadn’t been the victim of a pretty egregious horse-collar tackle by Marlon McCree on his second-to-last carry, he would have put up the first 300-yard rushing performance in league history. . .and a whole lot more.

On top of that, Brad Childress almost kept him from getting the record, too. After that tackle from McCree, Chester Taylor came in for a play and carried the ball for six yards. Someone must have told Childress that Peterson was that close to the record, so Peterson went back in on the next play and picked up the three yards he needed to surpass Corey Dillon on the single-game rushing record hierarchy.

I still can’t believe that it’s been 15 years since we got the opportunity to see this. Did you watch it while it was happening, folks?