Desperation for the spotlight is destroying the legacy of Adrian Peterson

Former Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was in the headlines recently, and it had nothing to do with anything related to the football field.

During the final game of the 2020 regular season, Adrian Peterson stepped onto the turf inside Ford Field as a member of the Detroit Lions to face the team that drafted him in 2007, the Minnesota Vikings.

Peterson and the Lions ended up losing the matchup, but the former Vikings running back was able to make an impact by rushing for 63 yards and one touchdown on seven carries.

Looking back, it was a perfect opportunity for the future Hall of Famer to step away from his career in the NFL. One final matchup against the franchise that has Peterson’s name all over their record books.

But no, the veteran running back has decided against confronting the inevitable end of his tenure in the league, and instead, his career is quickly turning into a story about someone who is afraid of leaving the spotlight.

Former Minnesota Vikings RB Adrian Peterson is literally fighting for attention

Since that final game of the 2020 season against Minnesota, Peterson has appeared in a total of four contests as a member of both the Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks.

The 37-year-old running back was on the field for a whopping 72 snaps last season and he averaged an embarrassing 2.5 yards per touch during the 42 times he got his hands on the football in 2021.

Peterson’s performance last year made it more obvious than ever that he no longer has a place in a league that has moved on from the days of building an offense around a rushing attack. He was already holding on by a thread during the last few seasons, but now there’s basically nothing left to grab onto.

With little to no interest from any teams in the NFL, Peterson has now decided to see if he can succeed at a different sport. At the end of the month on July 30th, the Vikings’ all-time leading rusher will step into the boxing ring for an exhibition fight against former NFL running back Le’Veon Bell.

With Peterson spending more than half of his life participating in a sport that is known for ruining the brains of its participants, one might have assumed that boxing would have been one of the last possible sports for the former Minnesota running back to try.

Instead, he has signed up to take part in an event that could result in additional damage to his brain, and make life more difficult in the near future for his family that would still like to make years of memories with their husband and father.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to imagine that this upcoming boxing match will be the last sideshow event that Peterson will participate in.

He was once at the very top of the NFL mountain and that accomplishment came with the ultimate praise from peers and fans all over the world. That amount of praise is something Peterson will likely never experience again, but he’s clearly not ready to accept that.