Despite the coverage of his on-field performance, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings may still be one of the best-kept secrets in Minnesota sports in one area: pure decency.

Blake Cognata of Fairport, NY (near Rochester) is a very ill high school senior. The cancer he thought he had licked has spread through the rest of his body. He’s in the hospital and it doesn’t look good.

Peterson is Cognata’s favorite player, and one of his friends took to Twitter with the hashtag #APCallBlake, to try to get word to Peterson about young Blake.

What do you guys say if we try to get @adrianpeterson to send some love to @blakecognata ? #APCallBlake — Dylan George (@D_George4) January 7, 2013

It took only 90 minutes before Peterson was on the phone.

“It was on his heart and he just felt he had to do it,” Chris Brown, Peterson’s assistant, said in an interview with a local newspaper. “If a conversation can bring a little bit of joy, it’s the least Adrian can do.”

Thank you @adrianpeterson. You are a truly a great man, and everyone in my community appreciates what you did. And I know Blake did as well — Dylan George (@D_George4) January 8, 2013

“He was awestruck,” his mother said. “We couldn’t get him to sleep until 1 a.m. He just kept saying, ‘I can’t believe it.'”