Adrian Peterson Is Living In His Own World

In the insular world that Adrian Peterson has created, the word abuse is never used, and the idea of breaking the NFL's rushing record is not seen as outlandish. Can wishing away hate and doubt allow him to become the king he once was?

- Eli Saslow

DURING THE HARDEST YEAR OF HIS LIFE, in anticipation of the day he had been dreading most of all, Adrian Peterson decided to throw himself a party. He made a list of about 320 friends and family members. He sent out invitations with an embossed signature logo. He bought his guests first-class plane tickets to Houston and booked them first-class hotel rooms.

He was turning 30, the age that so often marks the decline of great NFL running backs, but his career had been in a different kind of free fall for nearly a year. First came a grand jury indictment on a charge that he abused his 4-year-old son, followed by another allegation of child abuse, followed by his own admissions of marijuana use and promiscuity. The NFL had suspended him for most of the 2014 season and mandated that he seek professional counseling. Most of his corporate endorsers had withdrawn their support. The governor of Minnesota, once an avid fan, had called his actions a “public embarrassment to the state.”

And now his birthday on March 21. “Some people are starting to act like this right here is the end for me, like a funeral,” Peterson told one friend, and in an effort to prove otherwise, he scheduled a meeting in early March with the event company that had planned his wedding. He told Crystal Sowah, the company’s CEO, that he wanted to throw one of the most memorable private parties in the history of Houston.

“I want people to come and forget about everything else,” he said. “I want us to create a separate little world.”