Road to Canton: How a late-night trip led to Julius Peppers becoming a Bear
Story by Larry Mayer

To sign top free-agent target Julius Peppers back in 2010, the Bears knew they had to act quickly to beat other potential suitors to the punch.

Then-coach Lovie Smith led a small contingent on a private plane in the wee hours of Friday, March 5 to Charlotte, N.C., where they met with the star defensive end as soon as free agency began at 12:01 a.m.

"That's how college recruiting used to go," Smith told ChicagoBears.com this week, days before Peppers is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. "You couldn't sign anybody until a certain time, so you had to be ready to go. Well, that's what we did. Old-school college recruiting is what that was. We wanted to be the first ones there."

Smith was accompanied by defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli and chief contract negotiator Cliff Stein, among others. Peppers came to the plane to meet with them and liked what they had to say so much that he agreed to a lucrative six-year contract with the Bears and even joined them on the flight back to Chicago.

"We could have gotten on the phone and called," Smith said. "But when somebody shows up there like that, that really is saying how important you are.

"Rod and I both had jobs based on what we had done on the defensive side of the football, and we knew what defensive linemen looked like. We knew that we were a defensive line-friendly defense, and we knew what [Peppers] could do. And at that time, we were really looking to get someone that could give us more pressure from a four-man rush."

Before joining the Bears, Peppers had emerged as one of the NFL's most dominant players while spending his first eight seasons with the Panthers. The second overall pick in the 2002 draft out of North Carolina, he was a two-time first-team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowl selection who had averaged more than 10 sacks per season.

"I always felt like anytime you get a chance to get special, go for it, and obviously Julius' credentials spoke for themselves," then-Bears general manager Jerry Angelo said this week. "We just felt like he'd be a great fit. Everything we heard about him irrelevant of what his playing talents were—which my mother could recognize—he was really going to be a good fit in the locker room, and you know how important that was to us."

Peppers was a unicorn as an athlete, especially given his 6-7, 295-pound frame. He also played basketball at North Carolina, where he was part of the Tar Heels team that reached the Final Four in 2000. In his final basketball game in 2001, he scored 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in a loss to Purdue in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

"I don't think I've ever seen an athlete like [him]," Angelo said. "He had freakish traits. Everything was so natural for him. I've been around a lot of great players, and I don't know that I've ever seen one with his type of athletic prowess. There wasn't anything he couldn't do. To be honest, I think he could have played any position on the front seven."

"How many guys could start on a college basketball team, and not just any basketball team, the University of North Carolina basketball team?" Smith said. "And you're not talking about some small point guard; he was one of the big men. So you knew what kind of athlete you were getting, and I knew that it would just change our direction an awful lot."

After signing Peppers, it didn't take long for the Bears to discover that he was just as impressive of a person and teammate as he was a player and athlete. Smith described Peppers as "one of the easiest superstars I've ever coached, totally having the coach's back always."

"OK, you're going to be a Hall of Fame defensive lineman," Smith said. "How many defensive linemen want to start practice with pursuit drills? A lot of times you get a veteran late in his career, they have a way of doing things. Not Pep. He came there [and said], 'What are we doing? That's what I'm doing.'

"Just being a football fan, you had heard so much about Julius Peppers. We, of course, had competed against him. But reputation never gives anybody their true due and that was definitely the case with him."

"Players know greatness, and everybody revered Peppers as a player," Angelo said. "The added bonus that we got was he was such a team player. Humble as humble can be. Never sought the spotlight. And gave it his best every day. Julius was a prime example of coming in and having a strong work ethic, total team player, whatever you need coach."

Peppers joined a Bears defense that was already one of the NFL's best. It featured linebackers Brian Urlacher and Lance Briggs and cornerback Charles Tillman.

"We had some good defensive players, but to get [Peppers], it just gave everybody a boost," Smith said.

"You had all of us and we're all characters in our own way," Tillman said. "We all knew how to make it work with all of us and he was just a very unselfish guy. With his reputation and him coming to town, it was like he was drafted here."

Not surprisingly, Peppers excelled on the field. In his first year in Chicago, he earned first-team All-Pro honors while helping the Bears reach the NFC Championship Game. Peppers ultimately spent four of his 17 NFL seasons with the Bears, registering 37.5 sacks and being voted to the Pro Bowl three times. The only time in his career in which he recorded at least 11 sacks in back-to-back years was when he compiled 11.0 in 2011 and 11.5 in 2012 with the Bears.

"He was the perfect fit for what we were doing in Chicago," Tillman said. "If we were a '10,' he made us a '15' because of his character, his presence, his play, his attitude and his toughness. He was a freak in a good way. He was just as fast if not faster than me … And he was a great teammate, an awesome teammate, an amazing teammate. He blended in with us. He meshed with us so well."

Smith fondly recalls watching Peppers catch defensive backs from behind in the pursuit drills in practice.

"I don't know what his official time was in the 40 and all of that and I know he wasn't a guy down in the weight room throwing up 600 pounds," Smith said. "But he was about as strong as anybody around and it seemed like he was about as fast as anybody around at any position."

In addition, Peppers played with great confidence that also fueled his teammates.

"He never went into a game and didn't think he was going to destroy a left tackle or right tackle," Tillman said. "He just knew. The times I played [Lions Hall of Fame receiver] Calvin Johnson, I would say, 'Hey, I need some help, I'm working with a monster here.' And he'd go, 'I've got you, don't even worry about it.'

"That was just the confidence that he instilled in me. I was like, 'All right, cool, I don't have to cover that long because I know that I've got '90' up there.'"

Tillman can't wait to see '90' up there on the Hall of Fame stage Saturday, when Peppers and fellow former Bears Devin Hester and Steve McMichael are enshrined in Canton as part of the Class of 2024.

"I'm just excited," Tillman said. "His name will live in eternity, and to know that he contributed to the game that much, to be in that elite club, the elite of the elite, that's pretty cool just to say, 'Hey, I was a teammate, I got to see it up close and up front and it was amazing.'"