Patrick Peterson's new purple-and-gold threads must've kicked up a little LSU nostalgia.
The eight-time Pro Bowl CB wanted his No. 7 jersey back. And if Vikings backup Nate Stanley was willing to switch, he could wear it under the NFL's relaxed jersey number rules.
The deal between teammates: Stanley switched to No. 14 and Peterson donated new shoulder pads to the football program at Stanley's alma mater, Menomonie High School.
That pact will go a long way in Wisconsin, according to Stanley's former Menomonie coach Pat LaBuda.
"We have a lot of (pads) that have been here for a long time, some of them 15 years, 10 years," LaBuda told Chris Tomasson of the Pioneer Press. "A lot of them have been to the point where they need to be replaced.''
Per Tomasson, Stanley called his old coach to help arrange a 10-pad donation. LaBuda estimates each pair of pads cost "two or three hundred for good ones" each, meaning Peterson's largesse could save Menomonie thousands.
The veteran was happy to pay that price to secure his all-time favorite number.
"I always wore it in high school, I wore it in college," he told Bryant McFadden on their All Things Covered podcast. "I always felt comfortable with it. And that's what I felt started me. So it was only right to go back to my roots and rock that seven."
