NFL will be lucky to have classy Peterson in its league

	Adrian Peterson will bring some much-needed class to the NFL when he is drafted. Jason Wise/SI

SI.com's Adam Hofstetter spent a day last week with top NFL Draft prospects, Adrian Peterson and Brady Quinn. Below is a recap of his time with Peterson. Check back tomorrow for a story on Quinn.

To the executives of whichever NFL team drafts Oklahoma running back Adrian Peterson next weekend, I offer the following words of caution: when you shake his hand for the photo op, it's going to hurt. A lot.

I found that out the hard way last Wednesday, when I met Peterson and Brady Quinn while they were in New York to promote a mobile phone provider.

My assignment was simple: tail two of the world's most talented, most accomplished, and yet most unproven football players in the country through their day of seemingly endless interviews and appearances.

New York was the umpteenth stop for both men in their separate, weeks-long, whirlwind tours of the country to meet with officials from various teams trying to figure out whom to draft next weekend. Quinn was still working out for most of the teams he was visiting, while Peterson had already performed at the combine and was, in his words, "just going to meet the coaches and get a better vibe with them."

But Wednesday was media day for these two. In fact, by the time I met up with him at about 9:30 a.m., Peterson had already done a couple of phone interviews. He had several more interviews scheduled throughout the morning, followed by a noon press conference, a 12:30 Internet chat, and a press lunch before heading back to the airport. Somewhere between the press conference, the chat, and lunch, Peterson would also be meeting with three very lucky fifth-graders who were there to interview him and Quinn for the weekly kids' section of New York's Newsday. With all the travel and the early morning start, the notoriously late riser who compares his sleep to hibernation was lucky to know what city he was in.

Quinn's schedule was remarkably similar, though he got an even earlier start; he claimed in one interview to have been working out in his hotel's gym before 6 a.m. Their divergent morning habits are hardly the only difference between the two men. Still, both of them spoke about the anxiousness of not knowing where they'll live and work for the next four years, about their eagerness to test themselves against the NFL's best, about using a chunk of their signing bonuses to take care of their parents, and about their appreciation of the position they're in right now.