adrian peterson: the man, the myth, the...who?

so having been shamed by my husband, i realized that i should probably learn a bit more about this game called football. or, at least, the players on my own fantasy team.

if you'll recall, i'd picked up adrian peterson in the first round, as the second pick. in my league, a qb was drafted first.

i knew adrian peterson was a running back. but that's about all i knew.

so i did what any normal person with access to a computer would do. i looked up him up on wikipedia.

what i learned...

(side note: do you ever google google? I often type google into the space for the URL, so that i get to google's page, then do whatever search i'm doing. anyway...)

1. wikipedia said that adrian peterson is an "american football player" (important distinction, i know) nicknamed "A.D.", "A.P.", "All Day" or sometimes, "Purple Jesus".

I liked the name "Purple Jesus", although it is a bit sacrilegious. there's only one Jesus. just saying...

the website also said his father named him "All Day". i'm from a family where nicknames are common, so i found that sweet.

2. he played college football for the University of Oklahoma. (ok.)

3. he set the ncaa freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards as a true freshman during the 2004 season. (what i knew about true freshmen was also hazy, but i kinda sorta knew that a true freshman was one who likely played football his first year in college.)

4. he was drafted in the NFL in 2007

5. he set an NFL record for most rushing yards in a single game (296).

6. he is the fifth player in NFL history to have more than 3,000 yards through his first two seasons.

and that's when i started wondering -- who were the other four?

this started me on a search for who the other four may have been, which lead me to the pages for Eric Dickerson (definitely one of that number), Earl Campbell (perhaps another?), Jim Brown (definitely), and several other players.

the search took all day. until finally, i ended up with this bit of football knowledge/trivia:

in peterson's first 30 games, he had 3,101 yards, the third best start to a career for running backs, behind:
eric dickerson - 3,600 
jim brown - 3,144

i think earl campbell (the tyler rose) is also one of the four. i'm still not certain who the fourth is.

but...ok. at least now i know a bit more about him. i'm guess i am kinda glad he's on my team. all the pundits said so. even my husband said so. now i see it for myself.