Peppers says no to 14 Mil, yes to FA

Julius Peppers

With the NFL Combine over and done, the NFL Draft a pretty long way away, do not fear there is still news when it comes to an ex North Carolina player now in the National Football League. From this very small online article from ESPN it sounds that while defensive end Julius Peppers is going to leave the Panthers it’s not because they didn’t try to hold on to him. The team made not one, not two, but three runs at the Tar Heel to try to keep him with the franchise. The last shot was close to $ 14 million, coming just before the team allowed Peppers to become an unrestricted free agent. While I do not know much about the in’s and out’s of contracts I have to say that the Carolina Panthers played this fairly with the defensive end, as they could have franchised him once again, but decided not to. On the other hand, I have to wonder, being offered that type of money and saying no it makes you feel like in this negotation it was not about cash.

In a second article, this time from the Washington Post.com site, it says that last year Peppers wanted $ 15 million to sign an extension with the team, so maybe it was about the money in the end? With the season the Heel had you have to believe that the offer would not have gone down, but would probably had been higher, so the money on the table might not have been enough. Now comes the question everyone probably is thinking about: “is Julius Peppers going to get the type of money he is looking for elsewhere?” And the answer to that for me is (short version): “no”, (longer version), “no, unless a team decides that the NFL is going to have no stoppage and the DE can be the piece they were missing to make it to the next level”. Of course that sounds easy, finding that team is the bigger, much bigger, problem.

I love all my Tar Heels, all of them, and so I will wish all the best to Julius Peppers, but on the other hand, in this economy, with the way the regular people are living, do you want to be known as a player that is looking to get all that he can for all that it’s worth? Honestly I am not sure, but if you are asking me if I will feel bad if the tenth year veteran does not get all the money he wants, I won’t.

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