MINNEAPOLIS — With two minutes left in the game, and the game well in hand, the Minnesota crowd turned its appreciation to someone they know well: running back Adrian Peterson. And it caused the longtime running back, one of the hardest runners in the NFL, to choke up.
The Washington Redskins running back was shown on the scoreboard in both end zones, leading to a prolonged ovation, chants of “AP!” and Peterson twice waving to the crowd. The second time, he kissed his fingers then showed them to the crowd. He smiled, but he also said it caused him to be emotional. Peterson spent 10 years with the Vikings, rushing for a franchise-record 11,747 yards and 97 touchdowns.
“I had to hold tears back, to be honest,” Peterson said. “It was special, a special moment.”
He also called it a bittersweet one, considering the Redskins lost, 19-9. But Peterson showed he still had life left, rushing for 76 yards on 14 carries. The Redskins only had the ball for 8:01 of the second half, giving Peterson fewer chances to run the ball. But it was a much better return than the one he made in 2017 when, playing for the Saints, he rushed six times for 18 yards in the season opener.
But this one meant a lot to both Peterson and the crowd. That Saints game was known for the scowl Peterson gave to coach Sean Payton. There was no scowl to be seen Thursday.
“Just coming back and seeing the love they still have for me and they showed, man, it felt good,” Peterson said. “Even in defeat I’m able to embrace it and take it for what it was and it meant a lot. I spent a decade here so just to see that ovation and the love they showed it was meaningful.”
Peterson even caught himself doing something he once did often during his decade here.
“There was a couple times during the game I caught myself singing the Skol song,” he said. “It’s a natural instinct. Some things are just triggered.”
It was also another night in which Peterson moved up the all-time rushing list. He passed both Jerome Bettis and LaDainian Tomlinson and now resides in sixth place with 13,701 yards. He trails Curtis Martin by 400 yards for fifth place. Peterson has rushed for 383 yards this season, but 275 have come in the three games since Jay Gruden was fired.
“It means a lot,” Peterson said of passing Bettis and Tomlinson. “Came to the game expecting to climb the ladder and these guys I’m passing are the ones that paved the way for me. I loved LT growing up and Bettis, big boy running that ball extremely hard. That’s kind of how I got some of my motivation to be really aggressive, watching him banging in there. To look up on the screen and see that I passed those guys it’s humbling. But this is what I set forth to accomplish.”