Adrian Peterson has a bizarre explanation for why he ate food that he is allergic to the day before a game

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was sick during the Vikings' Week 7 win over the Detroit Lions, though you wouldn't know it by his 98 rushing yards during the game.

ESPN's Tyler Seifert reported beforehand that Peterson was sick upon arriving in Detroit because he swallowed chewing tobacco on the team's flight Saturday night.

However, Peterson denied this and said he had a bad reaction to eating shrimp.

Peterson is allergic to shellfish and has known about it since 2012.

On Wednesday, Peterson tried to explain why he ate shrimp to Chicago media before the Vikings Week 8 game against the Bears, and the result was a confusing, garbled explanation about being tested for shellfish allergies (via Kevin Fishbain):

"Yeah, I had shrimp. You know, people would be like, 'Why do you eat shrimp when you're allergic to it?' Well, here's the thing: I've eaten shrimp my entire life. Shrimp is not my -- you know, when you get the tests done, you have, for instance, scallops, lobster, shrimp and, let's say, peanuts that they're testing you for. You might swell up more when there's lobster. You might have a bigger allergic reaction to lobster than you do shrimp. Shrimp might just swell you up a little bit. Shrimp is like a little reaction. Lobster and especially scallops, that's when I really swell up. So I can kind of get away with it, eating shrimp."

We don't doubt that Peterson reacts worse to scallops or lobster than shrimp, but this is still bizarre reasoning. Why would Peterson eat a food he's allergic to with a game coming up? He did say that he brought his EpiPen with him, and that he craves shrimp so badly sometimes that he "goes against the grain," but it's nonetheless confusing logic.

Again, it hardly affected Peterson's performance, and perhaps he just had a lapse in judgment. We'll give Peterson the benefit of the doubt this time, but hopefully he stays away from whatever it is that made him sick before future games.