Seven men will be formally enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Canton, Ohio. Yahoo Sports will take a relatively short look at each legend and how he reached football immortality.
Patrick Willis | Steve McMichael | Randy Gradishar | Dwight Freeney | Andre Johnson | Devin Hester
Fans tuning into a Final Four men’s basketball game in April of 2000 saw a muscular freshman lead North Carolina with 16 minutes off the bench. They might have remembered him from earlier in the NCAA tournament, scoring six points with three blocks in an upset over top-seeded Stanford, or putting up six points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals in a regional final win against Tulsa.
Julius Peppers was a pretty good basketball player for a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.
Not many NFL defensive ends can say they started games for one of the most famed programs in men’s college basketball history — Peppers started three games in his final UNC hoops season as a sophomore, including a 21-point game in the NCAA tournament against Penn State— but Peppers was a special athlete.
On This Day in Carolina Dunk History (3/1/2000)
On his Senior Night, Ed Cota picked off a pass then found Julius Peppers filling the lane like a freight train for the monster tomahawk over Alvin Jones. pic.twitter.com/sY6DkrhuVc
— Carolina Classics Club (@UNC_Dunks) March 1, 2021
Peppers was the second pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2002 NFL Draft and played 17 NFL seasons. He was good enough that his first double-digit sack season came at age 22 and his final one happened at age 37.
He could probably still come off the bench and grab a couple rebounds, too.
Julius Peppers had a storied career
If you were creating a defensive end in a video game, you could do worse than copying Peppers’ attributes.
Peppers was 6-foot-7, 295 pounds with freakish athleticism. He held on to that athleticism into his late 30s too. That helped Peppers be a part of two Hall of Fame all-decade teams, making the 2000s and 2010s team. Peppers is one of five players in NFL history to have a 10-sack season at age 37. The others are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Greene, Chris Doleman.
There wasn’t much doubt Peppers would join them in Canton. He was a nine-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro, the 2002 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and is fourth on the official all-time sacks list with 159.5.
Peppers was a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and there wasn’t much debate about that honor.
Peppers was a Carolina legend
For Peppers, landing with the Panthers was fitting. He was born and raised in North Carolina, went on to be a two-sport star with the Tar Heels and then became perhaps the greatest player in Panthers history.
Peppers spent his first eight seasons with Carolina. He joined the Chicago Bears in 2010 and was a first-team All-Pro his first season there. He moved on to the Green Bay Packers from 2014-16, making a Pro Bowl in 2015 at age 35, and then finished his career with a two-season reunion with the Panthers.
Peppers was a clear Hall of Famer, but he might have been the last to realize it.
“It hasn’t set in yet,” Peppers said after he was voted in, according to Darin Gantt of Panthers.com. “Like I said, I’m not sure when it will, but, no, I don’t consider myself in the same class as these guys. If I’m being really honest with you. I mean, when you step back, and I guess when you look at it from the numbers and from that point of view, I guess I do. But, you know, most of the time, you don’t. At least me, I don’t view myself like that.”
