So I was watching the Vikings play the Saints last night, and a friend of mine asked me how it felt to see former Vikings running back and whupping enthusiast Adrian Peterson trot out onto the field in a Saints uniform. After all, Peterson was the greatest running back in Vikings history. He treated me and other fans to moments of insane, delirious joy.
But it goes even beyond that. Before Peterson found himself in the middle of a horrible child abuse scandal (a scandal for which he still has little, if any, remorse), he WAS the Vikings. He was the once-in-a-lifetime talent who made the Vikings formidable whenever he had the ball, and rendered them utterly helpless whenever he was sidelined with an injury. He is the only running back in the past ten years to win an NFL MVP award. He was the sun in the center of the Vikings solar system. Life without him was unpleasant to fathom, if not impossible. Every time he got hurt, announcers were always like, “What will they do without Adrian Peterson?!”
But then age and scandal and injury conspired to bring him down to the turf, and it seems like Peterson himself is the only person alive to not realize that his career is near its end. If you were watching Monday Night Football last night, you probably saw the sideline shot of Peterson languishing on the sideline, bitching and glaring at New Orleans head coach Sean Payton, presumably over the fact that he didn’t play all that much.
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Now, Payton had some weirdass play calls last night, mostly because he’s been mailing it in since 2009. But that’s not the reason Peterson would finish with a paltry 18 yards on just six carries. There’s nothing to indicate that Peterson could ever flourish in a pass-happy Saints offense that, for over a decade, has done quite well without him. In fact, given their depth at RB, it wouldn’t be shocking if the Saints decided to get rid of him before the season is over. He is old and broken down and all but useless at this point.
So when my friend asked me how it felt to see Peterson in the uniform of the opposition, I think I can honestly say it was a relief. It was a relief to see him infecting a DIFFERENT team with his angry dad glare. It was a relief to see another team quickly realize that it’s not worth compromising the rest of your offense just in the hope that Peterson will rip off a couple of nifty 40-yard runs. And it was an enormous relief to see my favorite team’s offense finally freed from his oversized shadow.
The Vikings played brilliant offensive football last night. Now, that’s largely due to the fact that they were playing a Saints defense that strives to be historically terrible year after year. There’s also the fact that the revamped offensive line gave quarterback Sam Bradford enough time to make all those pretty throws that have already made Bradford a very wealthy man. There was rookie Dalvin Cook bursting through holes and displaying the kind of versatility his predecessor never showed because he didn’t have to nor did he want to. And there were wideouts Stefon Diggs and Adam Theilen catching more passes than Vikings wideouts have in roughly the past four years combined.
But beyond that, this was a team that appeared LIBERATED, like a happy divorcee. I’m well aware that it was just one game, and that the Vikings have a terminal knack for turning promise into anguish. Everyone’s knees will explode by Week 6 and I accept that as my future. Still, if you made both offenses play in blanks uniforms last night, you would’ve sworn the Saints were the Vikings and the Vikings were the Saints. The Vikings were passing out of their skulls and the Saints were terminally sailing in irons, with a sidelined running back sucking up all the available oxygen while disingenuously insisting he’s still a team player.
Addition by subtraction is a very tired, old football concept. It feeds into the idea that players are not only disposable, but that they deserve to be disposed of when they dare to assert themselves. But in the case of Adrian Peterson—who ascended to God status in Minnesota and rarely, if ever, had to answer for his shortcomings—I think it’s okay to make an exception. I think it’s okay to play armchair QB for a second and say that cutting him loose was the best move Minnesota made all offseason. They’re finally free of Peterson’s bullshit. And on Monday Night, they played like it.
