I'm tired of talking about former Panthers DE Julius Peppers as much as anybody yet his latest interview continues to shed light on the reasons for his departure. We have been forced to speculate on his reasons for leaving Charlotte since he rarely talked to the media the last few seasons. Now that he has left he has found his pulpit for explaining all that went wrong in Charlotte, at least in his view. I want to be clear this is not another ‘Bash Peppers' piece, I'm simply trying to put this puzzle together so we can see the picture clearly and hopefully move on.

Let's start with the notion Peppers was tired of being a big fish in a little pond:

"I'm out here in Chicago and there's just a lot of love,'' Peppers yells over the blaring music. "I think back in Charlotte, I had been there so long that everybody got used to me. I mean, I got attention there and all that. But out here in Chicago, it feels a lot more genuine.''... he continues "Truth be told, that's really one of the small reasons that I wanted to get out; because everybody knows your business in Charlotte,'' he says. "I wanted to try something different because out here in Chicago, Jordan was here. Pippen was here. They've got Urlacher. They've got hockey. They've got the baseball. In Charlotte, it was all about the Panthers.''

So there is no doubting Peppers tired of being the big fish and wanted a bigger pond that already had it's trophies. I have to admit though this type of crap would get old with anybody:

 "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.''

But is that reason to leave? He did say it was a small reason...We've speculated a lot about Peppers agent Carl Carey and his role in all this. He's not an experienced agent but I better understand why Peppers trusts him, which in his world is more important than being just an agent. It starts with an incident at UNC where Carey stood by Peppers after he was accused of plagiarism:

"That was the first issue that we confronted,'' Carey says, "and believe me, we've been through a lot together.''

Carey entered Peppers life full time after his 4 game suspension his rookie season after taking a substance from a still unnamed Panther team mate:

 "It was just one of those learning experiences for me, one that told me you can't really take everybody for their word,'' Peppers says. "I felt like I could trust that teammate.

"That's why I don't have a lot of close friends. Outside of my mom and Coach Foster, it's just Carl and I.''

Peppers never mentions his father so I think Carey has definitely filled that hole in his life. That explains his lack of concern for Carey's agent experience; he simply wants someone he can trust. As it turns out Peppers sounds proud of Carey now for completing the deal with the Bears for $42M guaranteed:

"That deal is so good that Carl did,'' Peppers says. "He's not even a full-time agent. He's a professor at (Texas Southern). I'm happy for myself, and I'm happy for Carl for executing it because he was much-maligned throughout the process. Things couldn't have ended up any better.''

So it seems Peppers has returned the favor by sticking by his guy who stuck by him all these years; it's come full circle.

The last topic is Jon Beason's radio interview where he essentially questioned Peppers on-field intensity. Though I agree Beason was wrong for making those comments I think Peppers had long decided to leave Charlotte so in the grand scheme of things you can't blame Beason for Peppers leaving at all.

"Beason ... he knew he was wrong for that,'' Peppers says, his tone raised a notch. "I didn't even have to respond to that because as soon as he left the radio station, he came over and apologized.

"People that really know me know how I work. You never heard one of my coaches or (other) teammates say anything about my work ethic. And that Beason thing kind of got taken out of context.''

Just chalk that up to a learning experience for Beason that I'm sure he won't forget. No doubting this is Beason's team now.

One last Peppers quote on the use of stats to judge a players impact:

"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,'' he says. "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.

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

I can't disagree with this analogy at all, as long as you win games. When you don't win and you don't produce the stats either I'm sure the Chicago fans are going to be asking the same questions those of us in Charlotte have been asking.

So in summary the fact Peppers was essentially worshiped in Charlotte really annoyed him more than anything. Conversely Peppers doesn't want the responsibility of being a team leader. I think these two items are the primary reason for his leaving rather than loyalty to his friend Carl Carey or anything the Panthers organization or team may have said or done. Right or wrong, good or bad, I think I at least finally understand all this. I know, I know time, time to move on.