Cardinals’ Kyler Murray on Patrick Peterson criticism: ‘I know who I am’

TEMPE — Like most of his Arizona Cardinals teammates during the bye week, quarterback Kyler Murray was able to get away from the NFL grind and even spend some time back home in Texas.

But for all the peace and rejuvenation Murray experienced over the bye week, it wasn’t without some added chatter on the part of Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson, who spent one of his recent podcasts proclaiming the QB only cares about himself before backtracking and piling on more during an interview with Minnesota reporters a day later.

Having lived in the spotlight for most of his life, hearing that kind of criticism isn’t anything new to Murray.

But coming from Peterson, who had built a solid relationship with the signal caller? That’s a different story.

“Honestly, I was super shocked when I seen it,” Murray said Wednesday. “(Hollywood Brown) actually sent it to me asking what I did to him. … I was confused.

“I know who I am. … I’ll never not be me,” the QB added. “Confidence, all that. None of that wavers because of what people say.”

Despite Murray’s brush-off nature on the topic Wednesday, the signal caller felt Peterson’s jabs warranted a well-thought-out response soon after the podcast clip made waves on social media, questioning why a so-called “big bro” and “mentor” would broadcast that publicly instead of talking one on one.

Outside of that, though, Murray isn’t wasting any more of his time and energy on a former teammate who can’t seem to get over his departure from the organization, even if Peterson did what he said and tried to reach out to the QB after the fact.

“I said what I said. It is what it is,” Murray said when asked if he would ever hash things out with Peterson in the future.

“Me and Pat have had a great relationship. … Every picture I got with Pat, he’s cheesing ear to ear, I’m cheesing,” the signal caller added. “I seen him last year, so again, I don’t know where any of that is coming from.”

Peterson’s specific criticisms of Murray weren’t the first by any means and certainly won’t be the last over the course of the QB’s NFL career.

To Brown, who has spent more time with Murray than most anyone else on the team after playing college ball together at Oklahoma, and other members of the team, the perception people have on the quarterback is greatly skewed.

“If you don’t know him, he might come off wrong, but Kyler’s one of the most loving people I know, one of the hardest working people I know,” Brown said Wednesday.

“We know what he stands for, we know what type of guy he is.”

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