AD for MVP. There, I said it.

If you’re not sure who AD is — and, even worse, if you think “AP’” is an acceptable nickname for Minnesota Vikings halfback Adrian Peterson, rather than an abbreviation for the Associated Press — you need to learn this once and for all. Peterson has gone by AD, short for All Day, since he was a kid tearing it up in Palestine, Texas.

Now AD is a man who makes professional football players look like lesser men, which is not easy to do. It’s even tougher when you play on a team with a struggling, second-year quarterback (Christian Ponder) and with only one other legitimate playmaker (injured wideout Percy Harvin), who is done for the season. Yet Peterson is putting together one of the best individual campaigns a running back has ever enjoyed while pushing the Vikings (8-6) into the postseason mix.

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With apologies to Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, the greatest players of their generation — and two of the best quarterbacks of all time — Peterson has been the NFL’s most exceptional performer in 2012.

Like Manning, who is coming off four neck surgeries and a lost 2011 season, Peterson is a medical marvel: Less than a year after tearing his ACL and MCL, he is on the verge of becoming the seventh back to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. He even has a shot at breaking Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 yards. Peterson, fresh off a 212-yard effort in last Sunday’s 36-22 victory over the St. Louis Rams, needs 294 in his final two games to surpass Dickerson’s 1984 standard.

[Y! Sports Radio: Eric Dickerson wants to keep his single-season rushing record]

Dickerson didn’t win the MVP that year, losing out to Dan Marino. Neither did the most recent members of the 2,000-yard club: Chris Johnson was beaten out by Manning in 2009, and Jamal Lewis lost to co-winners Manning and Steve McNair in ’03. O.J. Simpson (1973), Barry Sanders (1997) and Terrell Davis (1998) took home MVP trophies, though Sanders shared his with Brett Favre.

The NFL is a QB’s world; the rest of his teammates just live in it.

I understand why quarterbacks have won an overwhelming share of the MVP awards since AP began doling them out in 1957. It is the most challenging and influential position in professional sports, and quarterback play almost always correlates directly with team performance.

Yet I think sometimes voters get overly caught up in the most valuable terminology. Quarterbacks, by definition, almost always have the greatest value to their respective teams. If you take the term literally, it’s tough not to vote for one, in any year. And when the term is taken too literally, it leads to some ridiculous suggestions, such as the campaign to make Manning the 2011 MVP — after he sat out the entire season and the Colts plummeted to 2-14.

[Related: Texans DL J.J. Watt making case for MVP honors]

By that standard, Len Dawson should get a few votes this year, given the Chiefs’ struggles.

I get why the “most valuable” label came about — you want to acknowledge the importance of a player’s impact upon a team’s fortunes, rather than just lofty stats. To me, however, the MVP should be the athlete who has the best overall season, period. Perhaps renaming the award “Most Outstanding Player” would help others choose in a manner more to my liking. Personally, I’d still give points for impact on a team’s fortunes without the word “valuable” in the award, all things being equal.

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