Tragedy nothing new for Vikings' Adrian Peterson

When Adrian Peterson was 7, he saw his older brother die in a bike accident when he was hit by a drunken driver.

During Peterson's teenage years, his father was in prison. He grew up poor in east Texas. Shortly before the Minnesota Vikings drafted him in 2007, his half-brother was shot and killed.

Long before Peterson began running through the NFL record book, he learned to turn tragedy into fuel for an exceptional career. Football always has been his escape, and now he's dealing with more off-the-field strife.

One of Peterson's sons, a victim of alleged child abuse, died Friday of severe head injuries suffered in the attack. The man charged in the case, Joseph Patterson, was home alone with the 2-year-old boy Wednesday and called 911 to report he was choking, according to police.

Patterson is the boyfriend of the child's mother. According to published reports, Patterson has a previous domestic abuse record with a different woman and child.

Peterson missed practice Thursday to be in Sioux Falls, S.D., where the boy lived with his mother and Patterson. He returned to the Vikings on Friday.

"Things that I go through, I've said a thousand times, it helps me play this game to a different level," he said after practice, about an hour after the child's death. "I'm able to kind of release a lot of my stress through this sport, so that's what I plan on doing."

The Vikings play Carolina today and Peterson promised to participate.

"I'll be ready to roll, focused," he said.

On his Twitter account yesterday, Peterson tweeted, "Just staying prayed up. One thing I always bounce back to is that the good Lord never gives you more than you can bear, than you can handle. So I'm built tough."