With food allergy scare behind him, Adrian Peterson sticking to hot dogs

The Great Mankato Seafood Scare of 2012 has passed.

A day after suffering an allergic food reaction, presumably to his lunchtime jambalaya, Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was back in good health and good spirits Tuesday.

During afternoon practice at Minnesota State University, Peterson went through a grueling on-field workout with strength and conditioning coach Tom Kanavy, hoisting dumbbells, performing several rope drills and running sprints.

A day earlier, Peterson had to be rushed to the hospital when his lunch in the cafeteria at Gage Hall triggered a frightening emergency. Something in the jambalaya caused Peterson's throat to itch then close. His face and eyes started swelling and his breathing became impaired too.

Quickly, Peterson made two calls to head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman.

Sugarman rushed to Peterson's dorm room and stuck the running back with an EpiPen, helping Peterson's breathing as the ambulance came to take him to the hospital.

"It was pretty scary. I must say that," Peterson said. "But I didn't panic. After that second phone call, I was getting ready to run downstairs and do something differently. But those guys came pretty fast. And we got everything under control."

At the hospital, Peterson received an I.V. that, he said, included Benadryl and some other medicine to calm the reaction. Most puzzling to the Vikings star was that he had no known food allergies before Monday's incident.

"I eat seafood all the time," he said. "Crawfish. Crab legs. I don't know exactly what was inside the jambalaya. But obviously my body reacted to it the wrong way."

Peterson said he will undergo blood work and other testing in the coming weeks to try and identify the allergen that caused this week's big scare. He also vowed to avoid seafood for the time being, worried he might have developed a shellfish allergy out of the blue.

"I hope that's not the case," Peterson said. "Because I want to continue to eat seafood."

This has been anything but a routine offseason for Peterson, who's been out of action while attacking rehab for his surgically-repaired left knee.

In early July, Peterson also had a surprising legal run-in, arrested in Houston after an altercation with police at a nightclub.

This week, Peterson had the run-in with his lunch to deal with.

"How do I sum it up? Life, man," Peterson said. "Life is full of ups and downs and it's all about how you bounce back from it."

As for Peterson's lunch Tuesday?

"Hot dogs," he said with a laugh. "And I'm going to stick to that."

In other Peterson news ...

When Adrian Peterson was done explaining his health scare from Monday, he stayed on message with his push to get back into action as soon as the coaches and medical staff will let him. The Vikings running back remains on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list but reiterated Tuesday that he wants to return to practice soon with the hopes of playing in part of at least one preseason game.

The Vikings have four exhibition contests: at San Francisco next week, home against Buffalo (Aug. 17) and San Diego (Aug. 24) and on the road at Houston (Aug. 30).

"I definitely want to play a preseason game," Peterson said. "That's the only way to really get out here and get back to normal. Going out there and participating and cutting and dodging guys and playing football. Getting that feel. Hopefully I'll get the opportunity to do that."

Also, with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf addressing a handful of stadium questions Tuesday, Peterson put in his vote for a retractable roof on the new building, which is slated to open in 2016.

"That would be nice. Retractable," Peterson said. "Because it's beautiful here in Minnesota. So we can open the top and let the sun shine in. But when the snow falls, close it. Retractable would work perfectly for me."