Poor Adrian Peterson.  It was an extremely tough year for arguably the best running back in football and his fantasy owners. All Day dealt with a high ankle sprain in the second half of the season and then blew out his knee during Week 16.  He wanted to get back onto the field to help his fantasy owners for the playoffs, but he suffered one of the most gruesome injuries of the year against the Redskins.  On Friday, Adrian had surgery to repair his ACL and MCL. As a result he had to ring in the new year from a hospital bed. Check out this picture he tweeted over the weekend:

Thank god for morphine and ice cream, right? In all seriousness, we hope Peterson makes a full recovery from the injury and can return to form on his reconstructed knee.  As we saw with Tom Brady missing the entire 2009 season, football can get boring at times with its superstars having to watch from the sidelines.

H/T to Deadspin f0r the picture

Adrian Peterson is the best running back in football and signed a contract in September that paid him accordingly. The Vikings gave him a new seven-year deal worth as much as $100 million. Even though he might not see all that money, $36 million is guaranteed. One would figure someone who just signed a big contract would reward himself with a nice purchase or two. Not the case for Peterson.

“No, I actually haven’t purchased anything yet,” Peterson told Jimmy Traina on the Hot Clicks podcast. “Haven’t bought anything yet.

“I like to sit back and let my money grow, so I’m going to sit on it for a minute. Something might pop up that I want to purchase, it might be a good investment or something, I don’t know, we’ll see. As of now, I’m just watching it build up in my account.

“I gotta look out for my family … so I have to be smart about it.”

Peterson signed the contract in early September, so we can understand if he really hasn’t had a chance to go shopping because he’s been busy focusing on the season. Still, he hasn’t bought ANYTHING for himself? Not even the sort of “Love Me” gift Cheryl’s therapist recommended she get? That’s commendable.

We’ve heard so many stories about players changing after signing big-money deals. We’ve seen guys like Chris Johnson whose play fell off after he held out. And here’s Adrian Peterson who isn’t motivated by material purchases. Maybe that’s the reason he’s able to have so much success from year-to-year — his priorities are in the right place.

The game plan for the Vikings’ first four opponents was very simple.  Stop Adrian Peterson.  Even slowing him down all but guaranteed a win.  That’s how bad the Vikings have been so far this season.

Apparently, the Arizona Cardinals didn’t get that memo.  In the first quarter alone, the Vikings burned the Cardinals for 28 points.  With punishing runs that put both speed and power on display, Peterson accounted for 21 of those points on three rushing touchdowns. Peterson has hit the 100-yard mark for the second time this season, taking only three quarters to do it.

His 122 yards on 29 carries were both season highs, as were the three TDs. Unlike week three when the Vikings stopped giving the ball to Peterson in the second half, they kept feeding him this game. Pretty sure the Bears, the Vikings’ next opponent, will get the memo about stopping Peterson before anything else.