Julius Peppers has always been a great player, but he’s also always been dogged by a certain reputation.
Lazy. Takes plays off. Only shows up when he wants to.
No one goes 100 percent on every snap of a football game, but Peppers has always been one of the guys that left you wanting more.
He’s an athletic freak.
He played both football and basketball at North Carolina. He’s 6-7, 287 and ran a 4.68 40. The guy had 10.5 sacks at age 35.
Peppers is top 10 all-time in sacks and is just six away from moving into the top five.
He’s the kind of player that you just feel like he should dominate every play. And that’s the problem.
Despite all of his success, Peppers was never really a guy to dominate like a J.J. Watt or a Lawrence Taylor.
Thus, he got that reputation.
Peppers isn’t real keen on the idea that he’s lazy or takes plays off, as you would expect. However, he admitted this week he used to take plenty of time off in the offseason.
“When I was a little younger I could take two, three months off without doing anything,” Peppers said. “Now I can’t do that. I’ve got to stay active.”
Two or three months!
That’s basically a summer vacation, something unheard of for athletes playing at the highest level.
It also makes you wonder. If Peppers hadn’t been taking months at a time away from training, what might he have been?
The important thing is, he’s training hard now.
Frankly, we could care less what he did before he got to Green Bay. If Peppers would have been working as hard when he played for the Carolina Panthers or Chicago Bears, he probably would never had made it to Green Bay.
The Bears, in their infinite wisdom, did decide to release Peppers following the 2013 season. We have to wonder what his training habits were like then.
Another interesting question here is this. Clearly there’s a goal for Peppers to play well this season.
If that happens, could he be back for another?