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The most talked about player at the Carolina Panther's summer school camp is the one who isn't there. Defensive end Julius Peppers has yet to show up. Nobody expects him to. But management and teammates expect to see him Aug. 2 when training camp begins.
Peppers' contract expired at the end of the 2008 season, so the Panthers applied the franchise tag. A team applies a franchise tag the way a wrestler applies a headlock. The tag, however, is more binding. It tethers a player to a team for one season whether he wants to be or not.
Can you imagine Peppers breaking the hold by declining to go to work? If he plays, he'll make more than $1 million a game. In alphabetical order, name the people you know who would walk away from $16.683 million for a half year's work.
Money often drives us and helps define us, and our natural inclination is to grab as much of it as we can while we can. A man who would walk away from almost $17 million has values that differ markedly from those of other humans.
I don't pretend to know what Peppers' values are. I've talked to him many times, always after games and practices and camp, although I once ran into him in a steakhouse bar. But I don't know him. The Panthers don't, either.
Of all the pro athletes I've been around – football, basketball and baseball players, boxers, race car drivers and headlock applying wrestlers – I've never met anybody like Peppers.
The world is full of people who tell you they are outsiders, outsiders who do what they want, when they want, and not what you expect them to. But if they were really outsiders, they wouldn't have to tell you.
Peppers doesn't tell you. He just goes. He might know his destination. But nobody else does.
I do know that in 2007 his destination was not the opponent's backfield. Peppers had 21/2 sacks. Every game he played had one more no-show than the attendance indicated.
What happened?
I've asked his employers, his teammates, his coaches and his agent and, of course, I've asked him. Answers range from “I have no idea” to “I have no idea.” Only Julius knows. And I doubt he has told anybody.
Find me another football star not dependent on others getting him the ball who has disappeared so blatantly in his prime.
The Panthers responded to his substandard season by offering him the most lucrative contract any NFL defensive player has ever received. At their best, the Panthers are a large family business, and they considered Peppers one of their own.
But he didn't sign the contract. He didn't even acknowledge it.
The Panthers won't admit this, but they were shocked by his refusal to sign. Why wouldn't they be? They attempt to pay a player coming off a miserable performance more money than the best defensive player in the league makes. And Peppers doesn't say no. He doesn't say anything.
Peppers came back and had 141/2 sacks last season. When it ended, he walked out, clean and neat. He had fulfilled his contractual obligations and wanted to experience life in a new city and in a new uniform. It had nothing to do with switching to a 3-4 so he could play outside linebacker. He wanted change.
His abrupt departure hurt some of the people who considered him part of the family. Before the Panthers took Peppers with the second pick in the 2002 draft, they looked at tape of other players. But it was just pretend. They were always going to take Peppers. He was always more than a guy on a roster.
His exit strategy was bizarre – I'll play for only four teams – and helped limit the pool of candidates that could offer him the money he wanted and offer Carolina the compensation it wanted.
But I wonder how tantalizingly close to freedom Peppers came? The Panthers can apply the franchise tag to only one player. Had they not signed star offensive lineman Jordan Gross to a last-minute contract that's heftier than he is, would they have allowed Gross to leave or would they have allowed Peppers?
Training camp opens in 49 days, and I expect Peppers to be there. You wouldn't have to be crazy to walk away from more than $1 million a game. But you'd have to be different.
You'd have to be really different.
