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LONG BEFORE HE WAITED for the call to tell him which NFL franchise had chosen him, Adrian Peterson anticipated another important football-related phone message.

As a seven-year old growing up in Palestine, Texas, he remembers the phone ringing and his eyes lighting up as if he was being guaranteed his favorite toy for Christmas.

“I remember sitting at my grandmother’s house and getting a phone call from my dad. ‘Tell your mom to take you down to the Palestine complex, I just signed you up to play football,’” recalled Peterson. “It was the first time I’d ever played organized football, something other than just playing outside. I played tackle and (a game we called) ‘Sideline Kill’ outside at a young age.

“I was excited because it was the first time I was going to play organized football.”

That was how it started for the seventh overall pick and first choice of the Minnesota Vikings who went on to set rushing records and win the 2007 NFL Rookie of the Year award.

Peterson took advantage of his little league football experience. As you would imagine, he was one of the Texas league’s better players and was selected to be a part of a travel team, giving him the opportunity to play against top teams from other states.

It was the early stages of what is becoming a great professional career, but it almost didn’t go as Peterson planned.

He was more than a little nervous that first day at the youth football complex. It could have changed his path to college and professional stardom.

“I remember going down and weighing in,” Peterson said. “It’s funny, I can remember I was like 119 pounds and if you were over 120 pounds you couldn’t carry the ball. So I remember stalling myself, running to the bathroom to get under that marking. I barely made it. Who knows? If I’d been a little heavier I might be a linebacker.”

There are more than a few members of the Big 12 and the NFL that wish the youthful Peterson would have had an extra biscuit or two on his way to his initial weigh-in.

In college at Oklahoma, he had the greatest season ever by a freshman running back, rushing for 1,925 yards. He was a first-team All-American and finished second in the Heisman Trophy voting to USC quarterback Matt Leinart.

He’s second on the all-time Oklahoma rushing list behind only Billy Sims. He did it in only three seasons, though his sophomore season was also cut short by injury.

The San Diego Chargers would have preferred Peterson stopped at the closest drive-thru 15 years ago, too.

In a Nov. 4 game between the Vikings and Chargers, Peterson rushed for an NFL single-game rushing record 296 yards. He also scored three touchdowns in the 35-17 Minnesota victory. It was Peterson’s second 200-yard rushing game of his inaugural season.

For Peterson, though, the youth football experience had little to do with what position he played, and more to do with the relationships he made and lessons he learned.

“I learned the value of team and how each player matters,” said Peterson of his Palestine little league days. “One player doesn’t make a team. You fit in to be a part of that as a youth and you experience the different emotion of coming together as a team with your teammates.”

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Story courtesy of Red Line Editorial, Inc.