North Carolina Tar Heels: Peppers to play 15th Pro Season
One of the North Carolina Tar Heels football greats decided to keep it going when Peppers committed to Green Bay this year.
Former North Carolina Tar Heels football and basketball player Julius Peppers has decided not to hang up his cleats and to return to the Green Bay Packers for another season. The former Carolina Panther had a Pro Bowl season in which he eclipsed the ten sack barrier as he continues to experiment being a 3-4 linebacker.
Peppers is likely returning to the Packers in search of his own Super Bowl ring. He was denied in only his second season with the Panthers and has not returned to the big game since. Peppers is also tied for ninth in career sacks with Jared Allen and even an average season from Peppers might make him top 5 all time in the category.
The Packers are certainly looking to come back with a vengeance next season. They get wide receiver Jordy Nelson back from injury and Eddie Lacy is doing some P90X stuff to get in better shape for the season.
The division that they play in will also be there for the taking. The Bears just lost their offensive coordinator and the Detroit Lions are trying to figure out if Calvin Johnson is bluffing about retirement. That leaves the Minnesota Vikings, who actually won the division last year. All that may have done is earn the Vikings dates with the Panthers, Cardinals, and Redskins.
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It seems hard to believe that Julius Peppers has been playing pro football for fifteen years. It doesn’t seem to long ago that he was taking home major college football awards for two different North Carolina Tar Heels football coaches. Oh and he played a little basketball too. In fact the club of players who played in both the Final Four and the Super Bowl has to be fairly exclusive.
If this is Peppers’ last campaign then I wish well. Not beat the Panthers in the playoffs well, but I hope he gets the individual accomplishments that he seeks.