Julius Peppers is the best defensive end in football

You can call me a Bears homer all you want, but the above statement isn't mine.  Although I do agree with it.  The national newspaper the USA Today is the one who made that claim.  Their panel of writers and editors named Peppers the best defensive end in the game today, and it's his all around play that garnered him the top spot.  Julius Peppers can do it all.

The neatest thing about the USA today piece, is they got an old school defensive end, one of the best ever to play the game, Deacon Jones, to give his take on today's players. The "Secretary of Defense" says of Peppers;

"Julius Peppers impresses me as much as anyone," Jones says. "He has it all."

Jones, who actually coined the term 'sack', had this to say about the specialization in today's game.

"Specialize? Run stoppers?" Jones says. "I hate to hear that. If you don't know how to play the run game, you ain't going to be no pass rusher. The guys who do that are not full-fledged football players."

"When you start thinking, 'I am a specialist, man.' … Well, yeah, I was a specialist, I guess," he says.

"I specialized in breakin' necks."

Oh yeah...  That's Old School.