After spending his first 8 years in the NFL as a Carolina Panther, it appears Julius Peppers is on his way out the door. Now, it may seem to many people this has been a work in progress the last few years, which to an extent, it has been.
Beginning after the 2007 season when he totaled a measly 2.5 sacks (the most important stat for a defensive end, in my opinion), Carolina offered him a new contract which would have made him the highest paid defensive player in the entire league. Was this cause for celebration for Peppers? Did he act like he was even remotely excited about the deal? No. He bitched and complained about it and ended up not signing the deal, instead opting to play out his contract and hope for some big payday in the free agent market the next year. He was quoted on a radio show on Tuesday, February 09, 2010 as saying “That deal was to make me the highest-paid defensive player, but slightly, very slightly.” Slightly or not, Carolina had so much faith in a guy coming off the worst year of his entire career (while only missing 2 games all year) they decided to reward him with the highest contract for a defensive player in the history of the NFL. Not only would any non-professional athlete literally run as fast as they could to sign that deal, but hundreds, possibly thousands of professional athletes would do the same. Without question Peppers was worthy of the contract and he is also without question one of the best players on Carolina (quite possibly THE best), but that wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted more money after his worst professional season. Go ahead and ask Josh Cribbs how he would feel about making $12 million a year. Would he sign that deal? I believe he would act like Rod Tidwell in Jerry McGuire if he were offered even $10 million a year and quite possibly piss himself during the phone call.
Granted, the 2008 season was a much better outing for Peppers where he recorded 14.5 sacks, but that just fueled the fire even more in his money hunger. Consequently, he asked the team to allow him to be let go in free agency to pursue a huge contract, claiming his biggest gripe with the team was (former) defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac. Proving yet again players are the ones who run the league, Carolina fired Trgovac and let Ron Meeks take over the defense to appease Peppers. Shortly after, the team applied the franchise tag to him which paid him $16.7 million to play in 2009 (just over $1 million a game…think about that for a second: while most Americans are sitting home watching football on Sundays, Julius Peppers made a cool million for suiting up) which also forced any team involved in a trade for his services to part ways with a few draft picks. As you may imagine, Peppers wasn’t too pleased with this information and it took him a very long time to sign his one year contract (a few months if I’m not mistaken) after long-term contract negotiations fell through once again.
The 2009 season went pretty well for Peppers (as it well should based on his paycheck) in which he recorded 10.5 sacks and also became the franchise leader in total career sacks for the Panthers with 81. After the season was over (may as well have been week 5), the front office came forward and said their #1 priority in the off-season was to sign Peppers to a multi-year deal and once again make him the highest paid defensive player in the NFL. A few weeks go by and nothing…a few more weeks with no news…and now Peppers wants out (again) because he feels the Panthers are ignoring him. This reminds me of a story I heard a few years ago about a couple that shall remain nameless. In the story, the boyfriend arrives at a party before his girlfriend and mingles, as one might assume would happen at a party. A few hours pass and the girlfriend shows up and makes her rounds, saying hello to friends, etc. Shortly after, the boyfriend comes up to the girlfriend in tears, literally crying because she did not say hello to him first. I’m no expert in relationships (I’ll let you do the research), but in my opinion this should have sent up some HUGE red flags for the girl relating to some possible trust issues or clinginess.
My advice to the Panthers would be similar to what I would tell the girl in the above situation: it might be time to move on. The relationship between Carolina and Julius Peppers has been extremely positive for the most part over the years, but this last interview by Peppers is the crying boyfriend who needs more attention than the franchise can afford to give. Granted, Carolina could put the franchise tag on Peppers again this year, but in doing so they would have to shell out $20.1 million dollars for 1 year of work and effectively murder their cap room and severely limit the capabilities of signing or re-signing other players vital to the franchise (read: a viable option at QB). It is fairly obvious Peppers does not want a long term deal with Carolina and if they do franchise him, the only options are trade for some draft picks or eventually get a long term deal signed. Either way, he must be franchised since he is not under contract and the Panthers need to get something out of the years they spent cultivating one of the better defensive ends in the league. I don’t see this ending well.
Farewell Peppers, it has been fun watching you play. I’m sure you’ll get your big payday from some team but you never forget your first.
Here is the story that inspired this post: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4899375
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