Julius Peppers

A lot of people don't really understand that a statistic is an indicator, but it doesn't really give the full picture of the body of work. There's been time when I've had one sack or no sacks and controlled a whole game, and I've seen other cats get three or four sacks and it had no effect on that game.

I've always looked around and pretty much knew that I was built a little different.

You have to be a smart player as well as a hard worker.

It feels great to be a Packer.

You go to the Super Bowl in your second year and you're like, 'OK, cool. I'll be back next year or the year after that.'

After considering the ways that I might be able to help young college students, I decided to continue my support of the Light on the Hill scholarship. I would like to endorse this particular fund and encourage other former UNC students who have found success to reach back and assist the efforts of current and future Tar Heels.

I can assure everyone that there is no academic fraud as it relates to my college transcript. I took every course with qualified members of the UNC faculty and I earned every grade whether it was good or bad.

I never said I had to be the highest-paid defensive player. That really wasn't the most important thing.

You can be an emotional, high-strung guy, and that might work for you. I think I can be reserved and quiet and play as well as the next guy.

I think I was just born like that, a personality trait. I'm an observer.

Tom Brady is a great player who can beat you.

To be honest with you, it really doesn't get me excited to see anybody get injured.

My approach is going to be all about winning games. All the rest of that stuff will take care of itself.

Finding real friends - that's something that was an obstacle for me. And learning how to deal with my problems and talking about them.

People that really know me know how I work.

Truth be told, that's really one of the small reasons that I wanted to get out; because everybody knows your business in Charlotte.

There's gonna be times where I don't get sacks, where other guys have two- and three-sack games.

You can try your best and do everything right for the most part and still not get sacks, and sometimes you can get sacks that fall into your lap.

I didn't want to do media or appearances. You've got to do this and that, fly here to film something. I didn't want to cut into my time for that. You can't pay for your peace of mind and your sanity.

I just live day to day, in the present. And I try to just be that best version of myself every day - I don't look too far behind, I don't look too far forward.

The Super Bowl ring eluded me, but I don't need that to validate me. I would have loved to have helped deliver that to the fans in Carolina, but I'm content with the career that I had.

It's tough to find the words to say to someone who has lost everything. I can't imagine how it feels.

Bears fans... man... I could not have chosen a better place to make my first stop outside of North Carolina.

I'll always love the city of Chicago.

There are only a few times in a man's life where you have the chance to stand up for something that you believe in and make a statement.

People who are given a lot, a lot is expected out of them. I realize that, but I also realize expectations are unrealistic sometimes.

Early in my career, I played with a guy in Mike Rucker who was a threat on the other side.

I've always been a guy who's reserved my words for the right time.

You don't want to be one of these guys talking all the time, trying to say things all the time, because people start drowning you out.

That's what this game is about; it's about relationships.

I can honestly say I want to be one of the best to ever play the game.

Hopefully I can be one of the better players to play in this league. That's what I'm working for.

As long as my body will allow me to play I'm going to continue to play.

I don't have a lot of close friends.

I live on a small town on the lake, and I mean people would get on their jet skis and just post up in front of my crib, trying to see who was there in my house.

In Charlotte, it was all about the Panthers.

There's a lot of games played, a lot of snaps played over the long haul.

It's something I take a lot of pride in, that people compliment me and hold me in high regard.

I'm not living my life out there trying to make everybody happy. I'm doing things that I feel like are right and things that I believe in.

I want to have an impact on the game. Instead of a sack, how about an interception for a touchdown? I could get 15 tackles. I'm just using those as examples, but any kind of impact would be fine, whether it's a sack or anything else.

I tell you this: I'm not an outdoorsman. Actually, one of my things is to pick a little corner in Borders or Barnes & Noble and fall back and just read.

I want to get as good as I can possibly be.

Different teams put me in different situations.

I had games where I had better statistics than others, but it wasn't because I wasn't playing hard.

Each season and each team is different. It takes on a different personality every year.

In this game you only get a few opportunities.

When you get to the big games you never know when you are going to be back so you've got to try as best as you can to take advantage of those opportunities.

I was so sheltered as a kid that when I went to college, it was like taking the chains off. That's where the trouble came from. It was the first time for me being by myself, and I got into everything you could think of.

Talking to your parents is a great idea - if you have that relationship with them.

That's something that I struggled with - talking to my mother about some of the problems that I had.