Watching Peterson, Stoops could barely hold his water
Published: 1/14/2013 3:54 PM
Last Modified: 1/14/2013 6:53 PM
NORMAN — Remember where you were a couple Sundays ago when Adrian Peterson almost chased down Eric Dickerson?
Bob Stoops certainly does.
“I was at the Beef Bowl at Lawry’s,” Stoops said, referring to the steak eating “contest” between football players from Oklahoma and Texas leading up to the Cotton Bowl.
In the Minnesota Vikings’ regular-season finale, Peterson rushed for 199 yards and finished the year with 2,097, just nine yards short of Dickerson’s NFL single-season record of 2,105.
Stoops was officially attending a team function, but he wasn’t about to miss Peterson’s run at history.
“I had a weak bladder, so I had to go use the bathroom every five minutes,” Stoops said. “I kept checking the TV.”
Hang on.
One of America’s toughest college football coaches is admitting weakness? Of his bladder, no less?
Uh, no.
“I didn’t have a weak bladder,” Stoops admitted with a wry smile. “I was making an excuse: ‘I drank a lot of iced tea.’ I had to keep getting up and excusing myself.
“It was late in the fourth quarter. I kept going up to the bar area, where they had a TV on, trying to see where he was.”
So Stoops can be sneaky when he wants to. But he’d do just about anything for his players — especially one that’s chasing football immortality.
“Just proud of him,” Stoops said. “He did all he could.”
Written by
John E. Hoover
Sports Columnist
