ASHBURN, Va. -- One legend greeted another, though only one was giddy. As Adrian Peterson got older and video highlights became a thing, he studied one back from East Texas more than any other: Eric Dickerson. He adopted Dickerson's upright running style; he had the speed, the size and the cuts.

If it wasn’t for the fact his high school didn’t have the No. 29 jersey, he would have borrowed that, too. Instead, No. 28 became the number he made famous.

“Just goes to show you the magnitude of Dickerson and what he represented in East Texas football in my life,” Peterson said.

Even early in his NFL career, when Peterson met Dickerson at a function in Los Angeles, he was starstruck.

“To meet a guy you idolized and looked up to and were getting compared to growing up and to meet him in person? I was already in the NFL and successful, too, but I was like a kid in a candy store,” said Peterson, who needs 261 yards to pass Dickerson for eighth place on the all-time rushing list.

Yes, that is what East Texas football meant to Peterson. It’s also what the state means to him, which is why he can’t wait to play against the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, on Thursday (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox). It will be his third NFL game there, roughly 125 miles from his hometown of Palestine, Texas. It’s also his first time playing on Thanksgiving.

“It will mean a lot just to get back home,” said Peterson, who has a home in Houston, where his kids live. “It does [mean more]. I remember growing up watching the Thanksgiving games, so to be a part of it, I’m looking forward to it. The Redskins-Cowboys rivalry on Thanksgiving? That’s huuuuge for me, growing up a Cowboys fan.”

For someone who talked about wanting to play in Arlington, it makes it more special.

“It does,” he said. “It does.”

But before he was a legend in the NFL, Peterson was the star of Palestine.

Peterson was motivated for an early-season game versus Huntsville his junior season. The reason was simple: Huntsville’s coach had been at Palestine the previous year. “I transferred from the crosstown rival [as a sophomore],” Peterson said. “I was the best player on the field and he kept me on JV.”

The first clip shows Peterson taking a handoff at his 32-yard line. At the 40, he cuts about 2 yards to his right, then turns up field and sprints through a tunnel of defenders. He showed everything: power, vision and speed.

But the next highlight was better; another long run featured another Peterson staple. As he cut to the outside, he sprinted down the field and, with a safety wearing the No. 15 in his way, simply lowered his head and bulled into him, driving him back.

Peterson laughs. “Hey, I was just trying to get to the end zone. By any means necessary!” he said. “My friends still call me the diesel. That’s what they used to call me in high school: A-Diesel because I was like a Mack truck.”

The damage: 359 yards rushing, six touchdowns in a shutout. “That Monday, I got a letter on my desk, an overnight deal. [Texas] A&M offered him after that game. That was the start of the recruiting process,” said Peterson’s coach at the time, Jeff Harrell.

Peterson remains connected to Palestine, with family in the area. He sponsors track and basketball teams in town -- dubbed All Day Elite, of course. The area has thrown parades for him and supported him through his NFL suspension for child abuse. Harrell has remained in contact, and said several times in a 15-minute interview what a joy Peterson was to coach. It goes beyond the statistics he put up.

But those numbers were something else: a combined 5,011 yards and 54 touchdowns. As Peterson watches clips, sitting on a couch outside the Redskins’ locker room, he smiles when watching games he probably hadn’t seen in many years. The footage is 15, 16 years old. He’s accomplished a lot since then.

Peterson offers a scouting report on the back he’s watching: “Relentless, man. Big and physical and fast and elusive.”

He smiles. He laughs. “It brings back some good memories,” he said. “It’s a time where it was fun, man. Just high school football. Friday night football. There’s nothing like it.”

On a run against an opponent whose identity he couldn’t recall, Peterson took the handoff around his own 27-yard line. A defender almost immediately grabs at him; Peterson, eyes looking past him, bounces outside and out of a high tackle attempt. Four players start to surround him -- two from behind, one to the inside and one in front. Peterson, looking beyond the tackler, makes his move. Adios; a 73-yard touchdown.

Peterson’s take: “On that run right there it was great footwork to bounce it out, and as the guy starts for my legs to step out of it and get to the end zone.”

Peterson grew up a fan of the Texas Longhorns, but did not include them in his final five college choices. He wanted to win a national title; he also wanted a chance to compete for the starting job as a freshman. He once said Texas wouldn’t promise him that opportunity. Hello, Oklahoma.

In his senior home finale, Peterson wanted to do something special. That’s all he’d been doing. But in this game vs. Athens High School, a 65-28 victory, Peterson rushed for 350 yards and six touchdowns -- in one half. From his 39, he powers through the middle and runs into a cluster of defenders around the Athens 45; he spins out of it to open field. Gone.

“I do remember that one. Just that spin. It looked like it was congested and you see me spin and off to the races,” he said.

Harrell said, “He kept doing that same thing in college and the NFL.”

Peterson-mania gripped Palestine for two years. The Wildcats' stadium was packed, often with people just wanting to come watch Peterson. Dallas lineman Larry Allen invited him to a Cowboys game, where Peterson watched on the sidelines. An ESPN The Magazine article once detailed his impact, with area hotels filling up with scouts and college coaches. The Palestine booster club raffled off footballs with his signature -- sometimes even at away games. Peterson was the top recruit in the country and one of the best ever to come out of Texas; he once admitted he felt he could play in the NFL as a freshman in college.

“I had guys fly in from all over the country to see him,” Harrell said. “All of them told me if he stayed healthy he would play in the NFL. They could tell at that level he was that good.”

There’s one more clip to watch. In this game, Peterson had to dodge a defender 3 yards deep in the backfield. He veered to his right, where more trouble awaited, then quickly planted his right foot and, after getting a defender to widen, cut inside. He slipped through one tackle, then avoided another 3 yards later as he swerved to the outside. From there, he sprinted downfield to complete a 41-yard gain; he gained an extra 8 yards after two defenders corralled him. But this wasn’t a high school game, though it resembled one of his old runs. It was from Washington's Week 3 victory over Green Bay, part of his 723-yard effort this season.

@AdrianPeterson continuing to prove the doubters wrong. #GBvsWAS | #HTTR pic.twitter.com/D3BzhUFUQ3

— Washington Redskins (@Redskins) September 23, 2018

“Yeah, that’s the same jump cut in the backfield and having the speed to get around the edge,” Peterson said, “and make what could have been a gain of 5 or 10 yards or even a loss and making it a gain of 30, 40 yards.” He’s not looking to see if, at age 33, he’s the same guy he once was. “I don’t think about it,” he said. “I let everyone else worry about that.”

They remember him well in Texas; he remembers his days equally well. Always will. He accomplished the rare trifecta: a legend in high school. Then in college. Then in the NFL.

“Just living the life of a legend,” Redskins tackle Trent Williams said. “He was born a GOAT.”