Vikings running back Adrian Peterson previously has mused publicly about finishing his football career in his home state of Texas. According to ESPN’s Outside The Lines, Peterson told Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in June that Peterson wants to end his career in Dallas.
“Well, I understand, Adrian,” Jones told Peterson by phone, via Don Van Natta, Jr. of ESPN. “I’d like that, too. . . . Well, I love your story. I love your daddy’s story. I’ve always respected what you’ve been about. I’ve always been a fan of yours.”
The quotes were “recounted” as part of a Jones profile, with the kind of specificity of words and sounds which suggests that Van Atta kept good notes, or possibly even had his tape recorder running.
“Well, we’ll see what we can do, if we can make that happen,” Jones told Peterson, via ESPN. “Hmm hmm. . . . I’d like that, too. . . . Well, we’re talking pig Latin here, but let’s see if we can do that. . . . We’re talking pig Latin here, but let’s see what we can do about that. OK, Adrian, thanks.”
The term “pig Latin” most likely refers to the NFL’s tampering rule and the reality that conversations that happened never actually happened. Jones knows about those rules; after Peterson talked about the possibility of playing for a Texas team, Jones declined to discuss the situation.
“As a matter of fact that’s called ‘get busted’ in the NFL to be talking about somebody’s else player,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan in Dallas/Ft. Worth.
Jones didn’t talk about Peterson. Jones talked to him. It could prompt a complaint from the Vikings, or it could result in the NFL investigating the situation on its own.
Either way, it could be “get busted” time for Dr. Jerry Jones -- and it could result in the Vikings getting some compensation back from the Cowboys, nearly 25 years after they gave up a Texas-sized truckload of picks and players in order to get running back Herschel Walker from the Cowboys in Jones’ first year of running the team.