Hall of Fame 2024: Julius Peppers’ incredible athleticism has made him one of the greatest players of all time

Seven men will be formally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday in Canton, Ohio. Yahoo Sports will take a relatively brief look at each legend and how they achieved football immortality.

Patrick Willis | Steve McMichael | Randy Gradishar | Dwight Freeney | André Johnson | Devin Hester

Fans tuning in to a men’s basketball Final Four game in April 2000 saw a muscular freshman lead North Carolina with 16 minutes off the bench. They might remember him from earlier in the NCAA Tournament, when he scored six points with three blocks in an upset of top-seeded Stanford, or had six points, eight rebounds, two assists and two steals in a regional final win over Tulsa.

Julius Peppers was a pretty good basketball player for a future Pro Football Hall of Famer.

There aren’t many NFL defensive ends who can say they’ve started games for one of the most storied programs in the history of men’s college basketball. Peppers started three games in his final UNC hoops season as a sophomore, including a 21-point game in the NCAA Tournament against Penn State. But Peppers was a special athlete.

Peppers was the second overall pick of the Carolina Panthers in the 2002 NFL Draft and played 17 NFL seasons. He was good enough that his first double-digit sack season came at age 22 and his last at age 37.

He can probably grab a few rebounds off the bench as well.

Julius Peppers had a legendary career

If you were to create a defensive end in a video game, you might copy Peppers’ qualities.

Peppers was 6-foot-7, 295 pounds, and had incredible athleticism. He retained that athleticism well into his late 30s, too. That helped Peppers make two Hall of Fame All-Decade teams, making the 2000s and 2010s teams. Peppers is one of five players in NFL history to have a 10-sack season at age 37. The others are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: Bruce Smith, Reggie White, Kevin Greene, Chris Doleman.

There wasn’t much doubt Peppers would join them in Canton. He was a nine-time Pro Bowler, three-time All-Pro, the 2002 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and is fourth on the official all-time sacks list with 159.5.

Peppers was elected to the Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and there was little debate about it.

Peppers was a legend in Carolina

For Peppers, joining the Panthers was a fitting choice. Born and raised in North Carolina, he became a two-sport star with the Tar Heels and went on to become arguably the best player in Panthers history.

Peppers spent his first eight seasons with Carolina. He joined the Chicago Bears in 2010 and was a first-team All-Pro in his first season. He went to the Green Bay Packers from 2014-16, where he made a Pro Bowl in 2015 at age 35 and finished his career with a two-season reunion with the Panthers.

Peppers was clearly a Hall of Famer, but he may have been the last to realize it.

“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” Peppers said after he was selected, according to Darin Gantt of Panthers.com. “Like I said, I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but no, I don’t consider myself in the same league as these guys. If I’m being completely honest with you. I mean, if you step back, and I guess if you look at it from the numbers and from that standpoint, I think I do. But you know, most of the time you don’t. At least for me, I don’t consider myself that way.”