Adrian Peterson's intensely personal decision to play in Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers two days after the death of his 2-year-old son never was a question in Peterson's mind.
"I don't ask people to understand my mindset and how I think," Peterson said after the game. "Anything that's bad, I try to take good from it. That's the way I approach life in all situations. I never thought about not playing. It was all about just going out there and having the strength to play and having the strength to get through and help my team. That was my focus."
Peterson wound up only carrying the ball 10 times. Carolina did a good job stopping him early. By the time Peterson uncorked a few runs, the Vikings trailed by too much to feature the running game in the 35-10 blowout loss.
Peterson was asked afterward about the emotions of his son's death.
"It was tough. It's a crazy situation. Any time you lose a child ... it hurts. ... We have a good supporting cast surrounding me here," Peterson said.
We've seen a few presumptuous, misguided articles that questioned Peterson's decision to play. One reporter after the game asked Peterson about his relationship with his son.
"Can we focus on football? I'm not really trying to get into details on that," Peterson said. "We just got blown out by (25) points. So let's focus on football and what the Minnesota Vikings can do to get better."
