It's just a job; defensive end Julius Peppers is perhaps the most talented player in the Class of '02, but his first love always will be basketball - 2002 NFL Draft Preview

Football Digest, June, 2002 by Scott Fowler

WHEN DEFENSIVE END JULIUS Peppers is drafted within the first few picks of the 2002 NFL draft--maybe even as high as No. 1--his new employer should know one thing: It will be risking a seven-figure fortune on an athlete playing his second-favorite sport.

Peppers loves basketball, first and foremost. And why not? Someone named after Julius Erving who grew up in the hoops hotbed of North Carolina is bound to have roundball embedded in his genes.

Peppers believes that if he had concentrated on basketball, he could have been a first-round NBA draft pick. But so many people have told him that his future rests in football that he believes them. It's not as much fun as basketball, but the pay probably will wind up being a lot better.

Peppers, 22, played both sports at North Carolina. He was a star defensive end in football, where, at 6'6" and 285 pounds, he was always more athletic than the tackles trying to block him, some of whom weighed at least 30 pounds more than he did. He was a crowd-wowing sixth man in basketball, where he had an easier time overpowering people and helped a Tar Heels charge to the Final Four one season.

The favorite chant in the Tar Heels student section when Peppers played basketball at the Dean Dome: "Sack him, Julius!" Says Peppers, "Basketball players aren't as big or as strong. It's kind of easy to do what you want to do."

Peppers made it look easy in both sports for most of his career at North Carolina. He grew up in the tiny town of Bailey (pop. 650), then went to college only 55 miles away at Chapel Hill. With those deep Tar Heels roots and Peppers' fearsome reputation, the Carolina Panthers will be under pressure to select Peppers with the No. 2 pick overall if the Houston Texans take a pass on him at No. 1.

Peppers' natural talent is impossible to ignore. He's a pure athlete--anyone will tell you that. When North Carolina redshirted him his first season and wasn't sure yet about where to play him, the school simply listed his position as "athlete."

Peppers has a reputation for taking an occasional play off, but when he's engaged, he's unbelievable. He was a unanimous first-team All-American this past year and finished 10th in the Heisman Trophy voting.

Peppers also made a few of the most spectacular plays in college football last year, including an interception against Oklahoma that he returned for a touchdown. He had another pickoff against Clemson in which he flung aside two blockers, batted Woodrow Dantzler's pass into the air, and then dropped to his knees for a diving catch.

Peppers ended up leading the nation's defensive linemen in interceptions with three, and he won a slew of hardware, including the 2001 Chuck Bednarik as the nation's best overall defensive player. He was only the second unanimous All-American in the school's history and its first since linebacker Lawrence Taylor in 1980.

Taylor was an absolute wild man in Chapel Hill. Even now, no freshman tour of the campus is complete without pointing out the six-story dorm that Taylor used to scale regularly for kicks like a rock climber. Peppers' off-field career was much quieter than that, with the only blemish being a fighting charge that was dropped and later termed a "misunderstanding."

As good as he is in basketball--former North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge used to regularly call him a "godsend"--Peppers is far better in football. He knows that, too. Peppers led the nation with 15 sacks in 2000, and although that total dropped to 9.5 last season, his draft stock hasn't dropped a bit.

Peppers flirted with the idea of playing basketball for one more season in 2001-02, and coach Matt Doherty certainly could have used him. Peppers might have been the Tar Heels' best player--without him, they struggled through their worst season in 50 years.

But Peppers had to do what was right for him, and that meant not taking a chance of getting hurt on the basketball court. Instead, he started preparing for the draft. (He had long ago declared that his redshirt junior year in football would be his last.)

"Peppers is a natural athlete," Florida State coach Bobby Bowden says. "And normally, if you put a football mentality in a basketball player and put him on the football field, they usually are pretty darn good. They've got all that jumping and leaping and balance."

Peppers helped decimate FSU last season at North Carolina, earning National Defensive Player of the Week honors after the Tar Heels' stunning 41-9 victory over the then-No.6 Seminoles. In that game, he had 10 tackles, a sack, and an interception.

If you are around Peppers much, you understand that he is the epitome of the strong, silent type. "I roomed with him for his freshman year, and I'm not sure he ever spoke a word," says teammate Ryan Sims, who also is expected to be a high NFL pick this year. "The guy defines `quiet.'"

Peppers enjoys dressing like one of his athletic heroes, Philadelphia 76ers superstar Allen Iverson, with diamond studs in both ears and a skull cap. And his body is tattooed, including one of a Tasmanian Devil holding a football in his left hand and a basketball in his right. But Peppers' celebrations in Chapel Hill after sacks and dunks were more subdued, basically consisting of turning around and getting ready for the next play.