Peterson accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, and played for coach Steve Spurrier's Florida Gators football team from 1995 to 1998. He was a member of the 1996 Gators team that finished 12–1 and won the Bowl Alliance national championship by defeating the top-ranked Florida State Seminoles 52–20 in the Sugar Bowl. Peterson started twenty-four of forty-two games in which he played, posted 249 tackles, three forced fumbles, thirteen tackles for a loss and 8.5 sacks. As a senior team captain in 1998, he was a first-team All-Southeastern Conference selection and a first-team All-American, and was selected as the Gators' most valuable player by his teammates. Peterson was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great" in 2011.
The Indianapolis Colts selected Peterson in the second round of the 1999 NFL Draft. The Colts acquired the pick from the St. Louis Rams in exchange for Marshall Faulk. He played for the Colts for four seasons from to. Peterson also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars for the six seasons from to when he and coach Jack del Rio had a verbal altercation during a team meeting. Peterson played for the Atlanta Falcons from to. On March 13, 2012, he became an unrestricted free agent, but re-signed with the Falcons on July 23, 2012. Peterson again became an unrestricted free agent in 2013.
Upon retirement from the NFL, Peterson returned to the University of Florida in 2013 to complete his undergraduate degree. He first worked as an undergraduate assistant coach on the Gators strength and conditioning staff then took over as its coordinator in 2014 after graduating. In 2016, Peterson was hired as outside linebackers coach on Will Muschamp's staff at South Carolina.
Personal life
Peterson is the older brother of former Chicago Bearsrunning backAdrian Peterson and cousin of former NFL wide receiverFreddie Solomon. Peterson is married to his wife Chantal and they have two sons: Mike, Jr. and Gavin. Peterson and his wife established the Mike Peterson Foundation in 2004. The foundation was constituted in an attempt to support and benefit under-served youth and socio-economically challenged families in Peterson's hometown of Alachua, Florida and his NFL cities of Jacksonville and Atlanta. Since its inception, the Mike Peterson Foundation has already served over 15,000 youth and families through several community events and programs, most notably the Top Dog Readers Club literacy program at the Grove Park Elementary School in Atlanta.
