A player drafted by the Panthers has been inducted into the Hall of Fame for the first time.
While several former Carolina Panthers are part of the NFL Hall of Fame, the first one to be drafted by the team, an OG if you will, was finally inducted this weekend. The 2nd overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft, defensive end Julius Peppers, was given his jacket.
It was fun to watch Peppers do a speech as someone who was notoriously a quiet player who never really got on the mic, if you will, as an NFL player. He ran through the usual stuff, thanking his mom, father, siblings, and agent. He thanked his former head coaches, his strength and conditioning staff, his former general managers, and of course, the fans. He made a point to address the fans of the Bears, Packers, and finally Panthers individually, which was a nice touch for one of the best edge rushers to play the game. And he ended it by using that moniker, “Keep Pounding”, a long with thanking the late Jerry Richardson for drafting him and bringing a football team to his home state.
He ended it with a nice touch about what being in the Hall of Fame means to him. Not everyone can be a Hall of Famer with a bust in Canton. But you can be a Hall of Fame person in your every day life was his message, whether it be as a dad, student, coworker, friend, etc. His message was that you can have a legacy even if you aren’t one of the all-time sack leaders in NFL history. I really enjoyed it, especially knowing it probably wasn’t easy for a guy who has mostly kept to himself media-wise unless he was obligated to.
Thank you for the memories, Julius Peppers. It is kind of amazing to remember just how insanely talented he was as an edge rusher compared to his peers. Even in this day and age I firmly believe he would have wrecked shop as an edge rusher. I still don’t know how this dude was picking off passes in coverage, blocking field goals, and destroying people’s spleens all in the same season.
I’ll miss watching you play Julius. But we appreciate the memories. Keep Pounding!