Adrian Peterson’s name has come up a lot in the college ranks thanks to Leonard Fournette of LSU.
With all the talk about maturity, Peterson believes he could have gone directly from high school to the NFL.
“Not to sound cocky or anything, or confident, but yeah, I do feel like I could have came out my senior year of high school and played in the NFL,” Peterson said. “I really do. And I’ll just say this, people were like ‘well, physically you just weren’t ready.’ I came in my freshman year and I was up for the Heisman, had a pretty good season, was the leading rusher.”
Peterson rushed for 2,960 yards and 32 touchdowns as a high school senior, and was a Heisman contender as a freshman.
“And there were guys that went in the league that year, like Cedric Benson, I felt like my freshman year I should have won the Doak Walker Award [for the nation’s top college running back], but they gave it to him — I kind of got off topic there. But anyway … I feel like I was a better player than him. And so it’s like, ‘I’m a true freshman, and if Cedric can go in [to the NFL] and play, then why couldn’t I do it?”’
By Glenn Erby
