I decided on a topic for this week's column last Tuesday. All week I was planning on writing about my confusion with Red Sox fans.
My confusion is this: Why do Red Sox fans seem to hate other teams (see: "Yankees") more than they seem to love their own team? It is absurd how much I see that ridiculous T-shirt with "I cheer for the Red Sox and any team playing the Yankees" on it.
Don't say money. Don't play the financial card when your team paid $51 million to negotiate with Dice-K's former employer. Or when you signed perennial underachiever J.D. Drew to a $70 million deal. Don't play the "division rivals" card, either. I don't buy it. I understand the Yanks have won a hell of a lot more than your team has, but the Sox arguably won the most exciting championship ever in 2004, and yet the seething hatred still remains.
Anyway, that was Tuesday through Saturday.
On Sunday, after the 'rents left to go back home to Minnesota, I turned on the TV, went to NFL.com, and closely watched each individual game. Naturally, I was most concerned with my favorite team, the Vikings, and their battle with the Chicago Bears. Like most football fans, I expected a game featuring two of the most vanilla offenses in the league against two of the stiffest defenses. I was expecting a game where the Vikings would lead for 59 minutes, only to have Robbie Gould hit a game-winning 51-yard field goal with no time remaining. It would have been terribly typical.
I could not have been more wrong. What I thought would be a grind-it-out field goal fest ended up being the Adrian Peterson show ... and it was extraordinary.
I'm really not a homer, but this kid is astonishing. In Sunday's game, Peterson had 361 total yards, including 224 yards rushing, and three scores. His touchdowns came on 67-, 73- and 35-yard runs. The 67-yard scamper saw the former Sooner literally trample Bears safety Brandon McGowan, run to the opposite sideline and sprint past Charles Tillman into the end zone. The 73-yard run saw AP showcase his unbelievable vision. On a run designed to go right, Peterson cut back left through the line, sprinted toward the sideline away from Brian Urlacher, ran between two defensive backs, and galloped into the promised land.
On the 35-yard dash, it was a simple handoff to the left. Adrian turned the corner effortlessly, and simply ran by every Bears defender. It was gorgeous.
Adrian Peterson is five games into his NFL career, and he already has 607 yards rushing and 175 yards receiving. He possesses an extremely rare combination of breathtaking speed and a violent running style that punishes any defender who stands in his way. He can change speeds and accelerate better than most, if not all, of the running backs in the league today, and he's only getting better.
His vision is uncanny; he seems to be two or three moves ahead of every defender in his path. And he already has the patience to let his offensive line do its job to create a hole - a skill that most running backs take years to develop.
Every defense in the league knows the Vikings have one talented player on the offensive side of the ball, and he's already established himself as one of the best in the game without a legitimate quarterback or wide receiver. Yet Adrian Peterson has not been stopped. He has 96 carries for 607 yards - an average of 6.3 per carry. And he's splitting the carries with Chester Taylor. Imagine what he could do if he got the ball more often.
Ross Marrinson is a senior majoring in international relations. He can be reached at ross.marrinson@tufts.edu.
