At this point, keeping Adrian Peterson on the Vikings is like putting a Mercedes hood ornament on a Plymouth.

In one respect, an NFL team isn’t all that different from any other business enterprise. As the song says: You’ve got to know when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em. When to walk to away and when to run.

Let’s hope Rick Spielman is limbering up.

Currently, the Vikings have yet to come to grips with their own futility. They continue to anticipate a turnaround that will vault them into Super Bowl contention. Well, uh, OK. Perhaps they will look sharp in beating the Giants on Monday night and then use that as a springboard to greatness. Or at least to mediocrity.

If not, if they wind up 1-5 and officially challenging for the title of Worst Team in the NFL, then they need get away from this bad hand and start dealing for the future. Adrian Peterson is 28 years old. NFL history is filled with stories about great running backs that began to break down at the age of 30. Among them are Eric Dickerson, Marshall Faulk, O.J. Simpson and Earl Campbell. The pounding takes its toll. And nobody runs harder than Peterson.

He’s wasting his prime here. And the Vikings need bulk, not one superstar player. So trading Peterson for enough components to jumpstart the team’s development is a sound strategy. It would be tremendously unpopular, of course. But it doesn’t make sense to keep Peterson around for what could be a drawn-out rebuilding process. The team already is a long ways off and likely will be without Jared Allen and Kevin Williams next season.

Peterson is the most revered and productive athlete in the Twin Cities. And his popularity likely is undented by recent revelations that he is something of a serial parent. The thought of having to sit through a Vikings game without him seems unbearable. But people should look ahead toward the greater good.

Legend has it that Jimmy Johnson was out for a walk one October morning in 1989 when it hit him like a freight train: His Dallas Cowboys, 0-5 at the time, were hopeless. Johnson stopped dead in his tracks. Within seconds he decided to trade star running back Herschel Walker and use the proceeds to fast track the team’s development.

Several teams were interested, but the Vikings “won” the sweepstakes. With all those draft picks the Cowboys took from Minnesota they selected Emmitt Smith, Darren Woodson and others who helped launch the Dallas dynasty.

Ten years later, coach Mike Ditka traded all of the New Orleans Saints’ draft picks, plus a No. 1 and a No. 3 the following season, to Washington for the right to move up and select running back Ricky Williams. The Redskins appeared to have secured their long-term future with that deal. Yet they mishandled the draft picks and wasted a chance to move into the league’s upper echelon. They stayed at .500 or below for five straight seasons.

What would the NFL’s best running back bring in return? Well, a real bounty. Just imagine what Peterson could do for a contender with a balanced offense. Oh yeah, the price would be very high. We’d have to assume that Spielman makes good use of the draft picks. But he certainly would have plenty of material with which to work.

Johnson’s Cowboys went 1-15 the year in which Walker was traded. Texans were screaming. The next year they went 7-9. Then 11-5. Then they won two straight Super Bowls. Not that there is another pigeon out there along the lines of former Vikings GM Mike Lynn, who worked the Walker trade from this end. But Adrian Peterson definitely would attract serious interest.

There are obstacles. Whichever team acquires Peterson likely would have salary cap issues. So the Vikings should be willing to take on salary in return — as long as they can dump it rather quickly. And Peterson shouldn’t have any trouble absorbing another offensive system.

Note that after starting 0-2, the Cleveland Browns decided it was time to fold ’em and traded running back Trent Richardson to the Indianapolis Colts for a first-rounder. As turned out, the Browns discovered they weren’t quite dead when they came into the Metrodome and whipped the Vikings. Now they are 3-3 and still have two first-round picks next year.

Trading Peterson should be seriously considered. It would be good for him and good for the Vikings. He’s out of place here, like a Rolex on the wrist of a hobo.

Tom Powers can be reached at tpowers@pioneerpress.com.