Adrian Peterson thinks he can endure five more camps
By Dan Zinski
Adrian Peterson sort of made a prediction about how much longer he will play in the NFL.
Did Adrian Peterson just stamp an expiration date on his career?
In an interview with Peter King of MMQB, Peterson was asked whether he thinks he can play until the age of 40. He says he thinks he can physically do it but he isn’t sure about sticking around that long and having to endure certain aspects of the job that become more-and-more annoying to players the older they get.
"“I can, but will I? Honestly, I don’t think I will. Mentally, I don’t know. Once I get to 38, I don’t think I’ll have the same love of the game. Sometimes I get tired of training camp. I think I can endure five more [camps], but after that, I don’t know.”"
There you have it, straight from Peterson’s mouth. Five more camps and he’s done. Don’t worry Adrian, we won’t hold you to it!
Peterson is only under contract with the Vikings for two more years so for him to stick around through five more camps he’d have to re-up for another three seasons at the age of 33.
Would he want to come back for another go-around at that age? Would the Vikings want to bring him back?
And would five more seasons be enough for him to eclipse Emmitt Smith’s rushing record? He’d have to average over 1,300 yards per season to get close to Smith in that time-frame.
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It was already highly unlikely that Peterson was going to touch Smith’s record before he missed most of a season due to off-field troubles, but that lost time made it even more improbable.
People like to say “don’t put anything past Adrian Peterson” but at some point you reach your limit. It sounds like Peterson still has the passion to play, but he’s not sure how much longer that passion can hold out against the annoyances of reporting to Mankato and bunking with kids in their early twenties.