Why all the Fan Hate for Peppers????

[ed bell]

I'm not convinced that the fan animosity towards Peppers is irreversible amongst reasonable fans or even widespread in general. I trust the players to work everything out in the locker room as far as team chemistry goes. I see Peppers' huge paycheck this year as two different things: not only a bonus for the years of playing beyond the expectations (most years) of his initial contract, but also as an incentive to continue to strive to be the best player he can be. He will now be playing with no LTC for one of the largest single year paychecks of 2009. The stakes for him are much higher if he has a poor season after the lukewarm reception he got testing the market at the start of this process. As far as trading him for draft picks? We all know how hit and miss 1st round picks can be. At this point in time I'd rather have one Julius Peppers on the team for 2009 than two slight chances at drafting some unproven player that will make an immediate impact in 2010.