"A phone call would have sufficed. A hand-written letter would have too.

Julius Peppers waited a week, then two, then a month.

He kept checking his phone during Pro Bowl week in January, hoping someone from the Panthers' front office would reach out and relay which direction the franchise was headed.

The call never came, leaving Peppers with a case of the Carolina blues.

"They want to spin it like I was hell bent on getting out of there," the Bears defensive end said of the Panthers, his team for eight seasons with before landing in Chicago. "They want to spin it like I wanted out no matter what."

The reality, according to what Peppers told the Tribune, just wasn't that.

"On two different occasions — right before last season started, while I had the franchise tag on, and then after the season — I was open to staying both times. But for whatever reason, they didn't get in contact with us.

"They didn't even say anything."

Panthers general manager Marty Hurney recently told the Charlotte Observer the team extended offers twice to Peppers, each making him the NFL's highest-paid defensive player. Peppers says he never saw the second offer sheet."