This guy might not be a human being.

Not only did he rush for an astonishing 2,097 yards last season coming off reconstructive knee surgery, he did so while harboring a painful sports hernia over the final month of the year.

GTFO.

A mainstay on the Vikings' injury report in December, Petersonreached his peak while playing through an abdominal muscle tear. It's an injury that makes it very difficult to maintain effectiveness at the highest level of professional football.

Peterson told Anderson he suffered the tear Nov. 11 against the Detroit Lions, and that he initially didn't realize the extent of the injury. He managed to play in six more games even though the injury "got worse and worse and worse."

"It was mind over matter," Peterson said. "It was just about doing what I had to do to push myself every week. My body was sore from the game and the sports hernia every Monday, so I did what I had to do to recover and get my body right. I just played through the pain. I ran on adrenaline."

Still, the pain was intense enough for Peterson to wonder whether he'd be capable of finishing the season.

"Against Houston (in Week 16), that was probably the worse I felt," Peterson said. "That was the first time that I really doubted myself and questioned whether I would be able to continue the season. The pain was a 10 on a scale of 10."

So, yeah. Fairly impressive.

[H/T: NFL]