Adrian Peterson sick after swallowing chewing tobacco on flight

— -- DETROIT --  Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who was downgraded to questionable because of an illness Saturday night, started Sunday's game against the Lions after what sounded like an unfortunate end to a team flight.

Fox play-by-play caller Chris Myers said early in Sunday's broadcast that Peterson accidentally swallowed his chewing tobacco when the Vikings' plane hit turbulence and dropped "900 to 1000 feet" on its way into Detroit. Peterson vomited after the flight, Myers said.

It happened suddenly enough that two team sources weren't sure how Peterson became ill, but he was on the field during warmups before Sunday's game and touched the ball nine times in the first quarter.

People close to the running back figured it would take much more than an illness to keep him off the field, considering Peterson played the second half of his 2012 MVP season with a sports hernia and lobbied to get back on the field in December 2013, a week after sustaining a midfoot sprain that typically would keep players out for several weeks.

As one person close to Peterson put it, "Adrian is Adrian."

The running back has logged 1,392 yards on 264 carries in 13 career games against the Lions. In his last game at Ford Field, Peterson took the opening carry of the 2013 season 78 yards for a touchdown.