Daily Madden: Adrian Peterson Is John's MVP
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- The Minnesota Vikings edged the Green Bay Packers 37-34 Sunday in a game they needed to win to make the playoffs.
Vikings running back Adrian Peterson led the way for the Vikings, and is John Madden's season MVP.
"They're going down the field and Minnesota needs a play, and they have to get in field goal position," John told the KCBS morning crew. "So I'm saying if Adrian Peterson is really the MVP of this league, he's going to have to make a play... And I'll be doggone if he didn't make the play. I mean he ran like 28 yards to make a play to put them down there to get the field goal to win the game."
Peterson ran for 199 yards, ending the regular season nine yards short of the NFL record one year after undergoing ACL surgery.
"That play that he ran to put them in that position was so doggone big to winning the game. That was the story, not the nine yards. That's frosting on the cake, that's a cherry on the whipped cream."
John said Sunday was a great day for the NFL.
"The league had a good ending this year," John said. "We just had good football, with good stories, with people that had to win to get in, with rookies doing well... There are going to be three rookie quarterbacks in the playoffs."
But Monday brought pink slips for some of the coaches whose teams didn't make the playoff.
"It's a day that I hate," John said. "They have families, they have kids, they have 20 assistant coaches that have families and kids and school, and they're fired and have to move. It's tough."
Among those laid off were John's friends Andy Reid in Philadelphia and Lovie Smith in Chicago. "Having been in that fraternity, it does hit you a little harder I think."
(7:40)
(Listen to the John Madden segment live weekday mornings at 8:15 on KCBS All News 740 AM/106.9 FM. And catch John's extra report at 9:15 a.m. Mondays and Fridays during the NFL season.)
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