Patrick Peterson played college football at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he won the Chuck Bednarik Award as the best defensive player in the country. Peterson also won the Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back and was unanimously reognized as an All-American. He was selected fifth overall by the Arizona Cardinals in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft. Peterson was named to the Pro Bowl in each of his first eight seasons in the NFL. In 2021, he signed with the Vikings as a free agent after 9 seasons with Arizona.
Peterson revealed he had type two diabetes in 2015.