Adrian Peterson Says Unlawful Actions Lead to Unauthorized Estate Sale

Ex Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson salutes the crowd in the third quarter in a game against the Chicago Bears at U.S. Bank Stadium.

Running back Adrian Peterson was supposedly having an estate sale in which he put a ton of items up for bids, including pieces of his career. After the news was reported, Peterson posted a video on social media saying the items were posted online without his authorization.

Adrian Peterson Says Estate Sale Was Unauthorized

In a video posted to X (formerly known as Twitter), Peterson says he did not authorize the sale of any of his personal belongings.

“I want to clarify recent rumors and media reports,” Peterson said. “An estate sale company, without my authorization, included some of my trophies in a sale, despite clear instructions to leave personal items untouched. I did not authorize the sale of any of my trophies, and I will be taking legal action.

“Trusting this company without supervision was my mistake. We allowed them to go into several of our storage units with clear instructions — they clearly did something unlawful.”

Among the items that were up for auction were his trophies for NFL Rookie of the Year, NFL Offensive Player of the Year, and his 2012 NFL Most Valuable Player Award. Those are in addition to game-worn items, game balls, and any number of other pieces of memorabilia.

“I want to emphasize that I am financially stable and would never sell off my hard-earned trophies … it’s concerning that the media outlets did not verify this information with my publicist or me,” Peterson said. “It is what it is; I just wanted to address this and put it in my own words because people have been texting me in the past hour.”

Currently a free agent, Peterson is widely considered to be one of the greatest running backs in football history.

He played college football for the Oklahoma Sooners, setting the freshman rushing record with 1,925 yards in 2004. Named a unanimous All-American that year, he became the first freshman to finish as a runner-up in the Heisman Trophy balloting. Peterson finished his college career as the Sooners’ third-all-time leading rusher.

He was selected by the Minnesota Vikings seventh overall in the 2007 NFL Draft. As a rookie, he set an NFL record for the most rushing yards in a single game (296) and was named NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year.

He was then named the MVP for his performance in the Pro Bowl and became only the fifth player in NFL history to have more than 3,000 yards through his first two seasons. In 2010, he became the fifth-fastest player to run for 5,000 yards, doing so in his 51st game.

Peterson tore both his ACL and MCL in a game in late 2011. Despite that, he returned by the start of the 2012 season and ended it with 2,097 rushing yards, just nine yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson’s single-season record. He received the NFL MVP Award that season.

KEEP READING: What Is Adrian Peterson’s Net Worth

In 2014, Peterson was indicted by a grand jury in Texas on charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child that occurred earlier that year and was suspended for the rest of the season

A free agent coming into the 2017 season, Peterson signed a two-year contract with the New Orleans Saints but was traded to the Arizona Cardinals mid-season before being released following the season’s end. Since then, Peterson has played for Washington, Detroit, Tennessee, and Seattle.

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