Julius Peppers says last play with Bears cost him his job
According to Julius Peppers, his last play against the Green Bay Packers last season -- and the sack he missed during it -- cost him his job with the Chicago Bears, Tyler Dunne reported today in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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A fourth-and-eight pass play with less than a minute in the game was Chicago's chance to clinch the division over the rival Packers. A well-timed block by fullback John Kuhn kept Peppers from reaching quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and gave Rodgers enough time to find Randall Cobb for a 48-yard touchdown that lifted Green Bay over the Bears.
“I was pretty close. I was pretty close,” Peppers said. “We joked about it. He actually cost me my job. He got me released. I guess it turned out pretty good.”
In four years with the Bears from 2010 to 2013, Peppers recorded 139 tackles and 37.5 sacks. After last season he was traded to Green Bay, and so far this season he has seven tackles and one sack for the Packers.
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Peppers, however, has had time to reflect on the play and how it changed his life:
"If that play had, if I would've made the play, I probably wouldn't be here now. It's kind of like one of those things like, at the time it was the worst thing that could've happened. But now it's like the best thing that could've happened."
Peppers and the Packers will return to Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday.
- Christopher Woody
