PETERSON'S DAD WANTS TO LEAVE PAST BEHIND

The Story Of Nelson Peterson, Father Of Oklahoma's Star Running Back
Adrian Peterson, Is The Story Of A Double Life.

During the 1990s, Nelson Peterson worked at a Wal-Mart warehouse in
the small East Texas town of Palestine and helped coach young
Adrian's pee-wee football teams. At the same time, he helped run a
large crack cocaine trafficking operation that led to his arrest in 1998.

He spent eight years in federal prison in Texarkana and is scheduled
to be released today from an Oklahoma City halfway house. Nelson has
never attended any of Adrian's high school or college games.

Peterson, 43, had hoped to break that streak in grand style at
Saturday's Texas-OU game at the Cotton Bowl. But he's not allowed to
leave the state for another 30 days.

"I know he'll be watching on TV," Adrian said. "That will be all I
need, anyways." Adrian said this week that he expects his father to
attend next week's home game vs. Iowa State.

Nelson Peterson has discussed, in general, his legal transgressions
during media interviews since Adrian was a top high school recruit.
Court documents recently obtained by The Dallas Morning News detail
the extent of his dealings.

Just before Peterson's arrest, federal agents seized $158,180 in
cash that he kept in a rented storage facility, the documents say.
Authorities accused him and 22 others of dealing crack cocaine for
most of the 1990s, generating roughly $4 million in total drug sales.

Peterson ultimately forfeited three houses, three cars and more than
$205,000 to the government as part of a money-laundering plea
agreement that sent him to prison.

"It shocked a lot of us," said Rick Nally, who said his teams won
two Anderson County Youth Football Super Bowls with Adrian as the
star. "Nelson was good working with kids."

Steve Eudey, another of Adrian's youth coaches, said Nelson was an
active and popular parent. He said the size of the drug operation
did surprise people, but he said there were suspicions about
Peterson and his main partner.

"You don't drive as many cars as they had just working at the
Wal-Mart warehouse," said Eudey, who was Adrian's guardian when
Adrian was in eighth grade, the first year of Nelson's imprisonment.

Processed from powder cocaine and baking soda into solid form, crack
is smoked and produces a short, intense high. Many authorities say
use of the drug reached epidemic levels in the late 1980s,
especially in urban areas, and increased the homicide rate
among black teenage males.

'WHY SHOULD I BE MAD?'

Sitting in a conference room at the car dealership where he works in
Oklahoma City, Nelson Peterson didn't flinch when asked last week
about his drug dealing.

"Why should I be mad or [feel] bad about anything?" he said. "I did
something that was wrong. I accept responsibility for that. I paid
my time to society, and now I'm moving forward.

"I use the road that I've traveled in my life. I use that to guide my kids."

Peterson said he considered himself a "wholesaler" and never
personally used crack. In court documents, a witness said he once
saw Nelson buy a half-kilogram of crack for $11,000.

Peterson said he set up the drug operation with a friend named
Kenneth Abrams, who lived down the street. Abrams will be closer to
Saturday's game than Peterson. Abrams pled guilty to distributing
drugs and is still serving time in federal prison in Seagoville.

"The feds weren't on my radar screen," said Peterson, who at 6-4,
217 pounds resembles his son. "I felt like I was doing things
low-key. I felt like I was being respectful. I kept a job. I always
kept a job. I wasn't a particular Boyz n the Hood type of drug dealer.

"I'm the kind that could live next door to you and you'd never know it."

Nelson Peterson was born in Palestine and grew up alternating
between Texas and Florida as his family followed the shrimping
business. He attended nearby Lon Morris College, a two-year school
in Jacksonville, Texas, and said he signed a basketball letter of
intent with Oklahoma but never played for the Sooners.

Peterson said OU's basketball coach then, Billy Tubbs, released him
from the commitment.

"He understood the family issues which I was dealing with, which was
the birth of my first son," Peterson said. "I was trying to be
responsible and be a man."

Peterson married Phyllis Booker in 1983 and went on to play
basketball at Idaho State. In his final season there in 1984-85, he
scored 603 points, still the seventh-best total in school history.

The marriage ended in 1987. During part of that time, Peterson was
seeing Bonita Brown, who won four gold medals for Palestine Westwood
at the state high school track meet in 1983. He had two sons with
each woman, including Adrian with Bonita in 1985.

"I have no bitterness," said Phyllis Booker-Hagger, who now lives
near Beaumont. "A child doesn't ask to be here. You have to do what you can."

She said her sons, Eldon and Derrick, are close to Adrian and
maintain a relationship with their father. She said Derrick and
Adrian were born within three days of each other.

"It will mean a lot to him," Phyllis saidof Nelson being able to
watch Adrian in person.

Altogether, Nelson Peterson says he has 10 children. That includes
Brian, his first son with Bonita. Brian was 9 years old in 1993 when
he was hit by a drunken driver while riding a bike. He later died of
his injuries.

Court records show Peterson's first drug arrest came on Christmas
Eve 1991. He was apprehended with .25 grams of crack and $18,354 in
cash. He received five years' probation.

The 1998 indictment, which covers 71 pages, states that Peterson and
Abrams began building their drug distribution organization in the
early 1990s. The money-laundering count to which Peterson pleaded
guilty states he conspired to hide his drug money by running it
through banking accounts held by others.

$40,000 down payment

Peterson also frequently paid cash.

In one instance, the government says Peterson paid $40,000 cash as a
down payment on a house. In another instance, the government says he
paid $18,700 cash to a Dallas car dealership for a used Lexus. The
title was transferred to a Palestine dealership and eventually put
in the name of Patsy Bruin, an older sister who raised Nelson as a
child. Peterson considers Bruin to be his mom.

"My mother, Patsy -- she didn't know anything about what I was
doing," Peterson said. "I couldn't put her through that."

Peterson said he cooperated in the government's investigation.
Charges against Bruin, who died in 2004, were dismissed, said Arnold
Spencer, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

"You don't go to court with the feds," Peterson said. "The feds got
a 98 percent conviction rate. So the easy thing to do is take a plea."

Nelson Peterson maintained his relationship with Adrian throughout
his imprisonment. He remembers phoning Adrian at Bonita's house one
summer morning to make sure he was up and ready for football
practice. Adrian was still in bed, Nelson said. He said he told his
son, "I'd better not call this house again and find you not ready."

"Just because you are incarcerated doesn't mean you can stop being a
father," Nelson said.

OU football coach Bob Stoops visited Nelson in prison while
recruiting Adrian. "I've talked with Nelson on a lot of occasions,
and he's been nothing but strong for his son," Stoops said.

Many federal inmates must go to a halfway house before being
released on parole. Peterson requested a transfer to Oklahoma City
and was allowed to move on June 9, according to prison records.
After he leaves the halfway house, he faces up to three years of
supervised release.

To get transferred, Peterson needed a job. Peterson said his former
cellmate knew Jackie Cooper, a prominent car dealer in Oklahoma City
who supports OU and Oklahoma State athletics. Peterson said he and
Cooper talked on the phone occasionally while he was in prison, and
he even sent Cooper a Christmas card.

Cooper hired Peterson after his release to do odd jobs at his BMW
dealership. OU athletics spokesman Kenny Mossman said Cooper checked
with the school's compliance department to make sure hiring Peterson
didn't violate NCAA rules.

"He earns his keep here and doesn't ask for any favors," said
Cooper, whose office contains a Sooners autographed football and a
basketball autographed by former OSU coach Eddie Sutton. "He's going
to have a very successful future. He really will."

Cooper's dealership isn't the one at which Adrian earned headlines
last spring for test driving a used Lexus for several weeks. Adrian
returned the car after his family determined it couldn't afford the
car, and OU officials determined no NCAA violation had occurred.

NFL Future?

Adrian was runner-up in the Heisman voting in 2004, the highest
finish by a freshman, and is likely to break OU's career rushing
record this season as a junior. It would not be a surprise if Adrian
left school after this season and declared for the NFL draft. That
would set him up to become a multi-millionaire as a likely high
first-round pick.

Nelson Peterson said the only opinions that matter about Adrian's
future belong to him, Adrian and Adrian's mother. Bonita now lives
in Purcell, Okla., with her husband Frankie Jackson.

She has stopped answering her phone because too many agents have
called, OU's Mossman said. Repeated attempts by The News to talk to
Bonita, including through OU officials, were unsuccessful.

"We're going to make sure that Adrian has a good support team around
him until he can get his feet wet and feel comfortable," Nelson said.

Steve Eudey, the youth coach and Adrian's former guardian who still
considers himself a mentor, said Adrian has made his own decisions
for quite a while and will continue to do so.

"Adrian ain't a little boy no more," Eudey said.

He said he hopes Nelson straightens his life out after his release.
And he said that Adrian, who has a young child of his own, will play
a key role for his father.

"I'm not in the least bit worried that Adrian is going to get
involved in the things Nelson got involved with," Eudey said.