Controversial Adrian Peterson didn’t play in last Sunday’s nationally televised preseason Vikings-Steelers game but he certainly wasn’t ignored. Among references to the Vikings running back was acknowledgment by NBC that Peterson declined an on-camera interview regarding the incident last year when he beat his four-year-old son with a switch. However, NBC pro football analyst Cris Collinsworth reported a conversation with Peterson where the future Hall of Famer “owned up” to his mistake.
Collinsworth told TV viewers Peterson understands the harsh views people have about him if all they know regarding his character are graphic photos showing the bloody injury his son suffered. Peterson’s supporters, though, including many individuals in the Vikings organization, have long insisted the 30-year-old Texas native is someone they like for his personal qualities and community involvement.
“It was a difficult conversation with him,” Collinsworth said on the NBC telecast. “He explained his family growing up—that he had tough love. That he was spanked by his parents and extended family, and (he) thought that discipline went a long way towards the guy that he became. Also, that many of his friends did not receive that kind of discipline and they’re in jail to this day.”
Peterson has multiple children by different women. He talked to Collinsworth about his 10-year-old daughter “who understood everything that was being said about her father” (involving the child abuse incident and his NFL suspension last season).
Peterson and the Vikings were in Canton, Ohio to play in the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Game. Chris Wesseling, writing for NFL.com on Sunday, reported Peterson believes his eventual induction into the Hall of Fame is a “no-brainer.”
Peterson has the third highest all-time average of rushing yards per game, but Wesseling quoted him as having career ambitions that go beyond being acknowledged as football’s greatest running back. He wants to be known as “the greatest player” ever.
Because injuries are a possibility, Peterson probably won’t play in the team’s remaining four preseason games. His first on-field appearance is likely to be the regular season opener September 14 against the 49ers.
Worth Noting
Sports Illustrated’s August 10 College Football Preview predicts the Gophers will be third in the Big Ten’s West Division after Wisconsin and Nebraska. Iowa, Northwestern, Illinois and Purdue will finish behind Minnesota.
Ohio State is the magazine’s choice to win the East Division and is ranked No. 1 in the country. S.I. projects a four-team college football playoff between the Buckeyes, Auburn, Notre Dame and TCU. The Gophers play at Ohio State November 7 and host TCU in Minneapolis September 3.
About 5,000 tickets remain for the TCU game that is expected to sell out. Among fans attending the game will be about 8,000 University of Minnesota students, including 3,000 who purchased tickets. Another 5,000 will be freshmen who annually receive free tickets to the home opener.
Among true freshmen making a good impression at early Gophers practices were offensive tackle Quinn Oseland and running back James Johanesson. Oseland, 6-6, 301 pounds from Springfield, Illinois, was rated the No. 2 offensive tackle in Illinois by Scout.com. Johannesson, the two-time North Dakota Gatorade Player of the Year, rushed for 81 career touchdowns at Fargo South High School. If Johannesson, 6-1, 221 pounds, becomes a starter for the Gophers some day, he will draw comparisons with Barry Mayer, a similar size running back from Fargo who led Minnesota in rushing in 1968 and 1969.
Mayer’s son, Adam Mayer, is a freshman walk-on wide receiver with the Gophers. The 6-1, 205-pound Mayer is from Concord, California where he played on a state championship high school team and was considered one of the better prep receivers in the Bay Area.
Gophers senior wide receiver KJ Maye liked what he saw of true freshman wide receiver Rashad Still during informal summer workouts. “The way that he can go get the deep ball and the way that he learns (impressed),” Maye said. “He learns pretty good.”
Still, 6-5, 200 pounds and from El Paso, Texas, was ranked as the No. 62 senior prep wide receiver in the nation by ESPN.
Dan O’Brien, Gophers senior associate athletic director, said his teenage son Casey had a successful surgery for cancer on his right lung last week. In a few months Casey will undergo surgery on the left lung with intent to remove all the cancer in his body.
O’Brien will have to decide whether he wants to be a candidate for the athletic director’s job vacated by Norwood Teague.
It’s interesting to look back at the comments of Rick Pitino about Teague. Pitino, the Louisville basketball coach, is the father of Gophers men’s coach Richard Pitino who was Teague’s most important coaching hire in three years at Minnesota. In April of 2014 the older Pitino, talking on 1500 ESPN, referred to Teague as one of the five best athletic directors in the country. “He’s an awesome AD,” Pitino said. “He is going to bring them to heights they’ve never seen before.”
Gene Taylor, the former North Dakota State athletic director who is credited with helping shape the Bison’s nationally prominent football success, told the Fargo Forum last week he isn’t interested in the Gophers job. Taylor is now deputy director of athletics at Iowa.
Chris Obekpa, the 6-9 shot blocking center the Gophers reportedly once had interest in, has transferred from St. John’s to UNLV. Obekpa, who was suspended by St. John’s earlier this year, will use his final season of college eligibility (2016-2017) at UNLV.
A source told Sports Headliners Dr. Bill McGuire’s option to buy eight acres of land near Target Field and the Farmers Market expires at month’s end. McGuire’s intent has been to build a new outdoor soccer stadium there or in St. Paul as part of the effort to acquire a Major League Soccer franchise for Minnesota. Proponents of the Minneapolis site want to see Hennepin County involved in covering infrastructure costs.
Danny Santana, the former Twins shortstop recently sent down to AAA Rochester after hitting .218 here, is batting .266 with the Red Wings.
The Gophers have commitments from Arizona, Illinois, Michigan State, UCLA and Washington to play in a round-robin baseball tournament at the new U.S. Bank Stadium. Rob Fornasiere, Minnesota’s assistant head coach, said the Pac 12/Big Ten Challenge will be the first weekend in March of 2018.
Minnesota native Karl Gregor is the new men’s head tennis coach at Tufts University. Gregor, a Wayzata High School alum, was interim coach of the team last season. He is a 1997 graduate of the Air Force Academy where he played No. 1 singles.