Julius Peppers receives gold jacket during Pro Football Hall of Fame induction

On Friday, Julius Peppers was officially inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame. The former linebacker is the first player drafted by the Carolina Panthers to be inducted.

After a standout career at North Carolina, Peppers was drafted with the No. 2 overall pick in the 2002 NFL Draft. He spent eight seasons with the franchise. However, after the Panthers opted not to place their franchise tag on Peppers in 2010, he became an unrestricted free agent and signed with the Chicago Bears.

Peppers spent four seasons in Chicago before signing a three-year deal with the Green Bay Packers. Peppers did not sign an extension and ultimately returned to the Panthers for the final two years of his career.

In his 17-year career, Peppers amassed 266 appearances and 240 starts. He tallied 715 tackles, 159.5 sacks, 51 forced fumbles, 21 fumble recoveries, 79 passes defended and 11 interceptions, four of which were pick-sixes.

Julius Peppers is very much a family man, so it’s only fitting that he would have his family on stage with him as he receives his @HaggarCo Gold Jacket from Hall of Famer Joe Greene.#PFHOF24 pic.twitter.com/tS7xyH2aNC

— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) August 3, 2024

For his efforts, he was a three-time First-Team All-Pro, three-time Second-Team All-Pro, nine-time Pro Bowl selection and the 2002 NFL Rookie of the Year. Additionally, he was named a member of the 2000s and NFL 2010s All-Decade Teams.

Julius Peppers’ former teammates shower him in praise

Ahead of Peppers’ induction, several of his former teammates reflected on playing with him.

“He would do something in practice, you’d be like, ‘I’ve never seen anyone do that before,'” Greg Olsen said. “And then the next day, he would do something you say, ‘I’ve never seen anyone do that before.’ But then, another time, he would do something that you’d never seen before. And no one even stopped. Like no one even broke stride. It became normalized, which is so hard to do.

“But when you are so exceptional amongst your peers, and you do it on such a regular basis, you can’t throw the guy a parade every day, right? And it probably wasn’t fair to him that we all just expected greatness on such a regular basis.”

Olsen wasn’t alone in his amazement.

“I hated going against him in half-line run in practice just as much as I hated going against him in one-on-one pass pro, and that’s not right,” Jordan Gross said. “Like when I would go against him, I knew, OK, there’s nobody better in today’s NFL. You just know he’s going to be a Hall of Famer, but you don’t know that when it’s happening.

“So, yeah, you took him for granted because he was a guy living, flesh-walking, breathing like the rest of us. And you weren’t able to reflect on the body of work at the time and realized he’d end up one of the top sack guys of all time. That doesn’t happen until later.”