Julius Peppers, Josh McCown make up lonely fraternity, but Panthers DE has upper hand

It’s a lonely club, but a proud one.

Carolina Panthers defensive end Julius Peppers, 37, and New York Jets quarterback Josh McCown, 38, make up two-thirds of the only members of the 2002 draft class that are still active in the NFL. The last is Dwight Freeney, 37, who just signed with Detroit.

The two are close friends, Peppers said, and caught up before the game. The two also exchanged jerseys after the Panthers beat the Jets, 35-27.

“We just said ‘what’s up,’ talked about family and we know his kids,” said Peppers. “He’s met mine. Josh is a great friend of mine. We go back, so it was cool to go against him.”

That doesn’t mean Peppers felt any twinge of remorse for sacking his friend.

“Nah, I didn’t feel bad at all,” he laughed after the game. “Because he didn’t feel bad for throwing touchdowns. So. He was kind of talking it up a little bit. It’s all fun.”

The fourth-quarter sack, on third down and 4 for an 8-yard loss, kept Peppers at the top spot on the Panthers with 8.5 sacks this season. Defensive end Mario Addison briefly tied Peppers’ old lead, 7.5, with a sack on McCown earlier that afternoon.

Peppers says he doesn’t mind if Addison beats him in the end.

“We need more out of everybody,” he said. “I don’t care about (the leader). We definitely compete, though. It’s a friendly competition. But whoever is the leader is the leader.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2017 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Julius Peppers, Josh McCown make up lonely fraternity, but Panthers DE has upper hand."