Adrian Peterson: NFL star’s two-year-old son ‘beaten to death’ by his mother's boyfriend

Adrian Peterson's two-year-old son Adrian Jr (pictured). It is believed that it is another little boy, who the football player had out of wedlock, who was beaten to death

NFL star Adrian Peterson was no stranger to tragedy before son, 2, 'severely beaten to death by his mother's boyfriend'

When Adrian Peterson was seven, he saw his older brother die in a bike accident after being hit by a drunken driver.
For Peterson's teenage years, his father was in prison. He grew up poor in east Texas. Shortly before the Minnesota Vikings drafted him in 2007, a half-brother, was shot and killed.
Long before Peterson began running through the NFL record book, he learned to turn tragedy into fuel for an exceptional career. Football has always been his escape, and now he's dealing with more off-the-field strife.