On Wednesday, the Minnesota Vikings gave Adrian Peterson two options - play for us or don't play at all. Four years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals gave star quarterback Carson Palmer exactly the same ultimatum.

The situation Peterson finds himself in is an extremely rare one in a league where franchise players are showered with lucrative contracts and praise from their respective teams. Peterson – set to make $12.75 million in 2015 –and Palmer could once, and can still be, counted among those players.

The face of the Vikings franchise feels betrayed by the Vikings' handling of a child abuse charge levied against him early in the 2014 season. The Vikings agreed to place Peterson on the Commissioner's reserve/exempt list, paying him his full salary, but barring him from any team activities.

Since then, Peterson, through his agent, has repeatedly demanded to be traded or released by the Vikings as he looks to start fresh. The Vikings, who finished 6-9 in games without their star running back in 2014, have maintained they have no plans to trade the player.

Palmer, as a member of the Bengals in 2011, also demanded a trade, promising to hold out until he was released or granted his wish.

No, Palmer did not feel betrayed by the Bengals, nor had he entered into any legal trouble. He simply decided he did not want to suffer through another rebuild with the team that took him first overall in the 2003 NFL Draft – a team with just two winning seasons since that draft.

Similar to the present-day Vikings, the Bengals - and their owner Mike Brown – consistently reaffirmed their plans to keep Palmer and his $11.5-million salary. Brown declared the franchise would not 'reward' Palmer with a trade and gave him the same options the Vikings gave Peterson on Wednesday – play or retire.

"We don't plan to trade Carson," Brown told NFL Network in May, 2011. "He's important to us. He's a very fine player, and we do want him to come back. If he chooses not to, he'd retire. And we would go with Andy Dalton, the younger player we drafted, who's a good prospect. Ideally, we'd have both of them. That'd be the best way to go forward. If we don't have Carson, we'll go with Andy."

Speaking Wednesday on the second day of optional practices, Vikings coach Mike Zimmer – the Bengals' defensive coordinator from 2008-2013 –seemed to echo the words of his former boss.

"He's really got two choices: he can either play for us or he cannot play," Zimmer stated. "He's not going to play for anybody else and that's just the way it's going to be."

Faced with the two options in 2011, Palmer refused to balk and entered into retirement at the age of 32.

The Bengals refused to publically acknowledge any interest in trading Palmer, even as the NFL season kicked off and teams were rumoured to have interest in his services. Behind closed doors, however, Palmer was available – for a large ransom.

The Bengals opened the 2011 season with a surprising 4-2 record with their new duo of Dalton and first-round pick AJ Green. The Oakland Raiders also got off to a surprising 4-2 start that same season, but seemingly had their playoff aspirations derailed when quarterback Jason Campbell suffered a broken collarbone.

It was then that the Raiders reached out to the Bengals and agreed to pay the exorbitant price of a first-round and second-round pick for the retired quarterback (The deal could have been escalated to two first-round picks had the Raiders won a Division Round playoff game).

Palmer struggled as a member of the Raiders, but is now enjoying a career resurgence as a member of the Arizona Cardinals.

Palmer's path represents the long road Peterson can choose to take, but one with no promises of the same happy ending.

Unlike Palmer, though, Peterson seems unwilling to retire or miss another season of football. His latest comments seem to suggest his fight against the Vikings has now turned to money.

"The reason I'm not attending OTAs has nothing to do with wanting to be traded," Peterson told ESPN's Josina Anderson. "It's about securing my future with the Vikings. It's business, not personal and I understand that firsthand. Go Vikings."

Whether or not the Vikings succumb to that demand remains to be seen. And, if they don't, Peterson will be forced to make the same decision Palmer once did – play or sit.