Houston TV reporter unwittingly interviews Adrian Peterson, 'man on the street'

Work long enough in journalism and you will be assigned a “person on the street” interview — likely against your will.

Sometimes things work out and you get good material. Other times it’s brutal. Every time I do it, I worry that the random sample size of the handful of people I talk to might not be representative of the population as a whole.

But I’ve never had a “person on the street” interview moment quite so awkward and hilarious as John Donnelly of Fox26 in Houston recently had.

Donnelly appeared to be asking random folks about traffic and fast drivers. He approached a muscular man in a tank top, and that man gave a thoughtful answer about cars swerving, ending with, “you never know with people, how they are going to react to it.”

Donnelly then does what all diligent reporters do by asking the interview subject for his name.

“Adrian Peterson,” he replies.

Then there’s a pause. Donnelly stumbles and says, “Wait a minute. … You’re not … ”

Another second passes and Peterson just smiles and says, “yeah,” at which point Donnelly realizes he’s interviewing the star running back and Texas native. Everyone starts laughing.

Here I am interviewing people on the street and not realizing I’d stopped a celebrity. Enjoy the awkwardness! https://t.co/edoLYFgcTH

— John Donnelly FOX 26 (@JohnDonnFOX26) March 1, 2017

I very much enjoy that Peterson agreed to do the interview and was perfectly willing to be on-camera for a seemingly mundane story — and that he didn’t play the “don’t you know who I am?” card at all. And kudos to Donnelly for posting the interview on his Facebook page.