A new profile of Jerry Jones by ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr. contains an explosive story about Jones receiving a late-night phone call from Adrian Peterson in which the All-Pro Minnesota Vikings running back professed an interest in playing for the Dallas Cowboys.

Hours after the story hit the Internet, Peterson denied saying he wanted to leave the Vikings.

In the must-read profile, Van Natta describes how Jones was entertaining in his owner’s suite after a George Strait concert in June. A friend of Peterson, who was in the suite, handed Jones an iPhone with the running back on the other line. Van Natta describes the one-sided conversation he heard, with Jones smiling and saying things such as “I’d like that too” in response to Peterson, who grew up in Texas and has mused before about returning to his home state to play football.

Listening to half the conversation, it is obvious Peterson is telling Jones he wants to play for the Cowboys. Peterson, 29, is in the fourth year of a seven-year, $100 million contract that will pay him $11.75 million this autumn to play for the Vikings. “Well, we’ll see what we can do, if we can make that happen,” Jones is now saying. “Hmm-hmm. … I’d like that, too. … Well, we’re talking pig Latin here, but let’s see if we can do that.” Jones listens, nods and says again, “We’re talking pig Latin here, but let’s see what we can do about that. OK, Adrian, thanks.”

The excerpt made immediate waves, with whispers of tampering being attached to most conversations.

After Peterson’s comments about playing in Texas last December, Jones declined to talk about them. “As a matter of fact that’s called ‘get busted’ in the NFL to be talking about somebody’s else player,” Jones said at the time. This time, he acknowledged to ESPN that Peterson made the comment about playing in Dallas, but denied that the conversation was tampering.

Peterson quickly issued a statement that did little to clear up the story.

“This was a casual conversation between NFL colleagues in which I never indicated I wanted to leave the Vikings. I have always said I understand the NFL is a business but that I would love to retire as a Viking.”

Notice how Peterson makes no mention of the Cowboys in his two-sentence explanation. All he says is that he “never indicated” he “wanted to leave the Vikings.” That’s some politican-level parsing. Saying you want to play for the Cowboys technically isn’t saying you want to leave the Vikings. It’s the assumed cause and effect, of course, but it still leaves plenty of wiggle room. It’s like standing for the pregame coin toss, calling “heads,” having it come up tails and saying “well, I never said it wouldn’t be tails.”

Peterson is in the fourth year of a seven-year deal with Minnesota.