NFL player and devout Christian Adrian Peterson doesn't take performance enhancing drugs, but rather "juices on the blood of Jesus," the Minnesota Vikings running back wrote in a recent article for the newly-launched website, Monday Morning Quarterback.
One of the featured segments of Monday Morning Quarterback, a website started by Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King, is a section titled "10 Things I Think I Think," in which star NFL athletes list 10 thoughts they have about their personal athletic performance and football in general, according to The Christian Post.
In a recent installation of "10 Things I Think I Think," Peterson listed one of his most memorable on-field interactions from the 2012 season, when an unnamed linebacker from the Detroit Lions approached Peterson after a successful game and asked him: "Adrian, what are you taking? What juice you using? I gotta get me some of that."
Adrian writes that his response to his fellow NFL player was: "I'm juicing on the blood of Jesus. Faith is what got me to this point."
Peterson goes on to write that when the Vikings played the Lions later in the season, the same anonymous linebacker approached Peterson and said: "I appreciate you saying that. You opened my eyes," reported The Christian Post.
"That was pretty cool," Peterson said of the experience. Peterson, who was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player of 2012, has previously been outspoken about his Christian faith. Peterson's immense success on the field has gained him the nickname "Purple Jesus," a title which he has said he understands, but doesn't necessarily support due to his Christian faith.
Last Christmas Eve, in the Vikings' final game of the season, Peterson took a tackle that tore the ligaments in his knee.
"Immediately when I took the hit, I knew something was wrong. I felt three pops in my left knee. I just remember going down in so much pain, my first initial thought was, 'Why? Why? Why? Why? You know, 'Why me?' I knew my ACL was gone," he told the 700 Club.
So was his MCL. These two tears are a professional athlete's worst fear. The injury is painful. The rehab is grueling. And a full recovery is seldom certain.
The 700 Club once asked Peterson to give an example of where he's seen God in the recovery.
"So many different times through the rehab where I was down spiritually and just my body, mentally, things I had to do. There were different exercises to strengthen my leg that was painful that I didn't want to endure at the time," he told the 700 Club. "But you know you have those thoughts that go through your head."
"Those thoughts," he said, are from the Devil and fiery darts.
"So, you can choose to bite on those or you can choose to block them out," Peterson said. "Just listen to the thoughts that God put in there. Without Him, doing this recovery, I had no chance - at all! No chance to do this on my own."
