PEPPERS TO MAKE $18.2 MILLION AS PRO BOWL STARTER
The baffling week with the Carolina Panthers just keeps going and going. In three days, Carolina waxed New York, head coach John Fox was allowed to return as head coach and controversial defensive end Julius Peppers got a $1.5 million bonus for being named a pro bowl starter. What’s next, another Jake Delhomme contract extension?
It all started Sunday afternoon when the Panthers absolutely destroyed the playoff hopeful New York Giants in their last-ever game at the famed Medowlands. By the second quarter, the game was over and it was just a question of how many points Carolina would score and how many yards would Jonathan Stewart rush for. The final answers were 41 and 206.
But that was just the beginning of it all in what has been a wild week thus far with the Panthers.
Monday afternoon, a report came down the pipe saying that head coach John Fox and Marty Hurney would each have the option of returning next season at their respective positions. This angered many fans and confused even more. How in the world can a guy with only three winning seasons, of which isn’t this year, be allowed to come back, especially after the debacle with Jake Delhomme in the offseason and during the season?
Nonetheless, Fox can return if he wants to. The only known catch is that he will not be given an extension on his contract, which ends after next season. Maybe Fox will choose not to work under those conditions. This story hasn’t yet concluded.
Then Tuesday evening, it was announced that defensive end Julius Peppers was named as a starter in what will be his fifth pro bowl appearance. By being named a starter, he was given a $1.5 million bonus, pushing his NFL-high salary for this season to $18.2 million.
There are a couple of ways to look at the Peppers thing: 1) Other than the Vikings stud defense end, Jared Allen, nobody in the NFC had a great year at end and Peppers gets the spot sort of by default. 2) Two of Peppers’ best games came on back-to-back weeks on national television late in the season and that’s what people remembered when they voted recently.
Regardless of how he got voted as a starter, that game one week before the Super Bowl may very well be the last time Peppers ever wears a Carolina Panthers helmet in a game.