Somebody should tell Adrian Peterson that he didn't do his wounded image a bit of good by having a temper tantrum last week on Twitter.
"The Assassin" — the persona Peterson told me he assumes on the football field — shot himself in the mouth, foot and a couple of other places in tweets written @AdrianPeterson. Peterson needs the NFL season to start tomorrow so his fresh legs can do the talking by churning up yardage and we can forget his tweets demanding guaranteed millions before showing up for work with the Vikings. Coach Mike Zimmer firmly says the Vikes aren't letting AP play elsewhere despite "PTI's" Tony Kornheiser's skepticism.
CBS Sports Radio's Jim Rome, heard locally on 105FM the Ticket, might be a voice Peterson listens to since he's a national guy. "Find somebody smarter than you are and run your social media through them before you post. It's insurance. It's nice knowing that we can't take your words and twist them" said Rome, explaining why athletes relish social media. "But in your case it would be even nicer to know that your words [won't] backfire. Personally, if I were an athlete and I had a Twitter feed, an Instagram account, Facebook page and I knew that any time I thumbed something out it could backfire on me or my brand or my viability, I absolutely would pay somebody to stay close or at least somebody I could run it through before I put it up there. There had to have been somebody who said, 'Hey AP, don't do it. Bad idea. This is not going to go well for you. … It's not going to make it any more likely you'll get a new deal or you'll get more guaranteed money,' " Rome said. "People will kill you" on social media.
And they did:
@mmiller404: "Maybe your union should worry less about defending the indefensible and more about guaranteed contracts."
@mikeyserpico: "The Vikes have honored your contract — please do the same!"
@rjg2386: "You make more than most people in the world, stop being greedy. Play hard, work hard."
@RoseTintedVisor: "You really took a beating on that contract, huh?"