You Can Call Me P2, Pat or Patrick

[JustinTime18™]

‘A breath of fresh air’: In joining the Vikings, Patrick Peterson gets to feel young again

Dan Pompei 1h ago

EAGAN, Minn. — The new guy walks into a new home for the first time in 11 years.
“What do you like to be called?” coach Mike Zimmer asks Patrick Peterson at the Vikings’ TCO Performance Center. “Patrick? Pat?”
His old coach Bruce Arians used to call him “Five-star,” as in the five-star recruit he always played like. But nobody calls him that anymore.
“You can call me P2, Pat or Patrick,” Peterson says.
“How about if I call you Patrick when I’m mad at you and Pat when I like you?” Zimmer says.
These days, he’s Pat to Zimmer. Only Pat.
Peterson steps on the scale — 195, it says. It’s the first time Peterson’s weight has not begun with a 2 since he was a freshman at LSU, and he’s about 8 pounds lighter than he has weighed for most of his pro career.
He pulls a jersey over his head, No. 7, which he wore in college, instead of No. 21, the only number he has worn in the NFL. The shirt is purple with gold, similar to his college colors, and not red, the color he is most associated with.
It’s like Peterson is going back in time.
At 31, he’s the new guy, not the old guy.

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Last year, Peterson was the old guy. That’s what they said, anyway.
He ranked 71st in passer rating against and was flagged 14 times, more than any player in the NFL. Of the 10 penalties assessed, seven were holding.
On his podcast “All Things Covered” with Bryant McFadden on CBS Sports, Peterson acknowledged he “had an up-and-down season” in 2020 and “didn’t play like Pat P.”
The easy explanation is he lost some juice. Nobody in the NFL who is 30 runs like he did when he was 22. Peterson’s 40-yard dash time at the 2011 NFL combine was 4.34 seconds. He acknowledges he’s not that fast anymore but believes he still has 4.4 speed.
Rod Hood has been training and coaching Peterson for six years. The former NFL cornerback, who works with defensive backs with his Atlanta-based company, Romans 12, says Peterson’s speed was not an issue. But there were issues. “Truthfully, last year wasn’t his best year,” Hood says. “He had a down year. A lot went into that.”
When Peterson was at his best, James Bettcher was his defensive coordinator. Bettcher was let go by the Cardinals after Arians retired in 2018, and Hood says the defensive changes made by subsequent coaches did not play to Peterson’s strengths.

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“Bettcher let him do man-to-man, let him do his thing,” Hood says. “They were more free with him then. The coaches who came in pulled back the reigns with him and tried to make him conform to what they wanted him to be. He wasn’t as loose because he was thinking a lot more. Pat’s the type of player with his God-given ability, he shouldn’t have to think about it as much.”
Peterson says the Arizona defensive scheme didn’t allow enough presnap adjustments. He often had to run across the field with receivers, and that resulted in being pick-blocked or colliding with his own teammates.
Hood says Peterson subsequently became less disciplined with his technique. Zimmer thought he saw some freelancing in Peterson’s play.
Peterson believes many of the flags were for “pitty-pat fouls,” thrown when receivers engaged him in hand-fighting. “I honestly believe at least half of those calls were horrible calls,” he says. “I don’t want to be fined for saying that, but you have to let players play.”
Despite having the worst season of his career, Peterson says the Cardinals told him repeatedly they wanted to sign him to a new deal. During his exit meeting after the season, general manager Steve Keim told him his goal was to re-sign Peterson and “we’re going to do everything to get you back,” according to Peterson. The message was repeated in February before he became a free agent for the first time.
But on March 1, the Cardinals agreed to a two-year, $28 million contract with another veteran defender — defensive end J.J. Watt. Peterson kept waiting for his offer. He always has been most comfortable face to face, man to man. But the Cardinals went silent, which angered him more than the fact they apparently decided they didn’t want him back.
“I was just frustrated and upset at how upper management handled the situation,” he says. “You tell me one thing, then when it’s time to talk, you turn your shoulder on me like it’s cold shoulder. I’ve been in this league a long time. Thirty years old. Grown man. Talk to me like a grown man, not like a child or your side piece.”

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Once the team Peterson wanted to play for most was no longer an option, he began contemplating the possibilities. The Cowboys and 49ers made pushes, he says. There were conversations with the Eagles.
When he interviewed with Zimmer before the draft in 2011, Peterson was drawn to him. At the time, Zimmer was the Bengals’ defensive coordinator. With the fourth pick in the draft, the Bengals chose wide receiver A.J. Green, and the Cardinals took Peterson with the following selection.
Zimmer didn’t think the Vikings had a chance to sign Peterson. Then Peterson asked his agent to call Zimmer. Once Zimmer and Peterson talked, they knew they were a match.
The Vikings offered a one-year, $8 million contract, and Peterson agreed to it on March 17. It was not the deal Peterson hoped for, but he says he is good with it. “I’m willing to bet on myself for this season knowing the salary cap is going to go back up, and I can have opportunities to come back to the table and get more than what I got this year,” he says.
After he agreed to join the Vikings, he finally heard from Keim, Peterson says. “He had the nerve to text me, talking about how I love you, wish you nothing but the best. Now your phone work all of a sudden. I found that as the ultimate disrespect right there.”
Peterson did not return Keim’s text message.
Peterson and Hood, meanwhile, went back to cornerback 101, practicing the fundamentals Hood taught him in 2015. They watched tape of Peterson’s struggles last season and tried to come up with a solution for every problem.
They worked on speed too, with Peterson running 10s, 15s, 20s and 40s, often wearing a weight vest of either 15 or 20 pounds. And then Peterson, who typically spends as much as $300,000 annually on body maintenance, recovered with hyperbaric chamber treatments, saunas, cryotherapy, light therapy, Pilates, yoga and more.
Peterson has always been the type of athlete who does everything possible to prepare himself for peak performance. But he has taken his dedication, focus and intensity to another level since joining the Vikings, Hood says.
Peterson says there is “no doubt” he has worked harder than ever. It showed on the scale.
“I have a chip on my shoulder,” Peterson says. “A big one. A very big one. It’s probably the biggest chip I’ve ever had on my shoulder. You gonna get the real P2 this year.”

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Patrick Peterson made the Pro Bowl eight times while with the Cardinals. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

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The new guy, driving a purple Polaris Slingshot, pulls out of his heated garage and past a snow shovel hanging on the wall.
He’s not in Arizona anymore.
Peterson loved Arizona, from the red rocks to the Red Sea.
So much happened there.
When he arrived, he was just old enough to order a beer, but as a rookie, he made the first of eight Pro Bowls. In 2012, he married Antonique, and she received her doctorate at the Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University during their time there. She worked on the front line with COVID-19 patients during her residency at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix. In 2014, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. And then he learned how to live with it. He helped the Cardinals go to the NFC Championship Game after the 2015 season. In Arizona, he became a father to daughters Paityn in 2015 and Parker in 2019. For the people of the Grand Canyon State, Patrick gave away holiday turkeys, ladled soup to the hungry and put books on bare shelves.
Arizona loved Peterson, and Peterson loved Arizona.
But the love from him is past tense.
He and Antonique sold their 7,800-square-foot house on the corner in a gated community in Scottsdale and moved to Minnesota. He has plans to return to Arizona only two more times. Once will be Sept. 19, when the Vikings play the Cardinals — yes, he’s looking forward to that one. The second time will be if, as expected, the Cardinals invite him back to put him in their ring of honor.
Having never lived north of Phoenix, snow for sand seems like a good deal to Peterson. “It’s great for me and my family to experience something new,” he says. “It’s a completely different lifestyle. I will have the opportunity to experience some seasons now versus just having the desert and the sun year-round.”
After 10 years in the desert, he needs water, and there is plenty of it in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. As a child, Peterson went fishing with his father and grandfather often in Southeast Florida. He missed the rod and reel in Arizona, so in the offseasons, he kept his hobby going on his 37-foot catamaran in his home state, catching kingfish, grouper, bull shark and more. He no longer has to go to Florida to fish, as the bass have been biting on Lake Minnetonka and Lake Riley, and it soon will be walleye season. When the weather turns, he plans on ice fishing.
“It’s a breath of fresh air,” he says one beautiful Minnesota day while sitting outside on a concrete stoop before practice. “It was all in God’s plan.”
At the defensive walk-through, Peterson is the first player on the field, as usual, going through a series of dynamic stretches. He and Zimmer meet on the grass. It is one of those undiscovered moments that shapes teams.
Zimmer asks him what he thinks about the wide receivers and Peterson dishes. Then they start talking about some of the defensive backs, and Peterson offers some frank critiques.
Zimmer has had success with older cornerbacks, including Deion Sanders and Terence Newman, and has met many veterans who aren’t very interested in his opinions or wishes. One of the first things Zimmer asked Peterson was, “Do you want to be coached?”
“I want you to coach me,” Peterson told him. “I want you to coach me hard.”
And so they begin an ongoing discussion about technique, scheme and teamwork. What Zimmer teaches is mostly what Peterson has excelled at, but the Vikings are giving Peterson more options in certain coverages and emphasizing denying receivers the ball instead of going for interceptions.
Zimmer leaves the details to secondary coach Karl Scott and mainly discusses the big picture with Peterson — how he can impact teammates and how they can impact him.
Sanders was the most gifted corner Zimmer has worked with. Peterson is next. Sanders was voted all-decade in the 1990s. Peterson was voted all-decade in the 2010s. Both were the greatest cornerbacks of their generations.
“With Deion, we knew how good he was, so we wanted to make the game really simple with him,” Zimmer says. “That’s what we’re trying to do for the most part with Patrick. It’s about, ‘Here’s your job. Take care of your guy.'”
Peterson says he believes the Vikings will “allow me to be Pat P.” The expectation is Peterson will be playing a lot of press-man, in which he has excelled for most of his career. And it seems likely he will be traveling with No. 1 receivers, at least in some cases. “Right now,” Zimmer says, “he’s our best guy at corner by far.”

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Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson sees the spring in Peterson’s step as well as the wisdom in his eyes. Jefferson has known Peterson since Jefferson was 10 and Peterson was an up-and-coming cornerback for LSU. Peterson was teammates with Jefferson’s brother Jordan, and Justin often tagged along with his older sibling. Now Justin says Peterson probably is the most gifted cornerback he ever has competed against. “To see how patient he is, how smart he is and how fast he is, he’s a crazy player to go up against,” Jefferson says.
Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen says he could not be happier to call Peterson a teammate. Their lockers are next to one another. They golf together and compete at practice like MMA fighters.
“I was thinking at the end of practice today I have to go and talk to him and tell him he’s making me better,” Thielen says. “He’s got that dog in him. I talk a lot about what that ‘it’ factor is. I call it the dog factor, but you have to have it in this league to be that superstar, to be that guy who makes a team go from good to great. He’s that guy.”
For the first time in a while, Peterson says he is appreciated instead of tolerated.
This, he believes, is the beginning of the final third of his career.
“I feel rejuvenated,” he says.
That’s what being a new guy can do.