CANTON, Ohio — There's a visible difference with Julius Peppers, of course. Even among a group of the greatest football players of all time, he's the big one, the tall one, the one you notice in a crowd.

And even if it wasn't about stature, there's a visceral reception when he walks into an event around the Pro Football Hall of Fame, with Warren Sapp running up to hug him and a wake behind him as guys come in to greet him.

Even among the legends of the game, there's a recognition that Peppers is different.

"He's one of the guys that I really respect and admired when he was playing ball," said Dave Robinson, the Hall of Fame linebacker who won three championships as a member of Vince Lombardi's great Packers teams in the 1960s.

Robinson saw up close what greatness looked like. He played next to Ray Nitschke, for goodness' sake. He's not flipping cheap compliments around. He saw real football, and he played it.

"When a guy like Julius plays, he's not playing the same quality of guys that we played against," Robinson said plainly. "He could have played with us. Some of the newcomers in the league couldn't play in the old days. Julius Peppers, he could. Julius could do it."

That was a common refrain among the legends who gathered here this weekend for their annual reunion at the Hall.

Many of them were meeting him for the first time, but some had more background.

Hall of Fame safety Donnie Shell had the benefit of knowing Peppers, as he worked in player affairs for the Panthers at the time Peppers was drafted.

But he also was part of the Steel Curtain defense, playing behind linemen like "Mean" Joe Greene and L.C. Greenwood, linebackers Jack Ham and Jack Lambert, and in the same secondary as Mel Blount.

"I knew from the first day we drafted him when I was with the Panthers that he was going to be here in Canton," Shell said with a grin Friday morning as the Hall of Famers gathered for their annual team picture.

And Shell agreed that Peppers would have fit in another era.

"Yes, sir. Quite handsomely," Shell said with a laugh. "Put LC on one side and him on the other, we'd have had two great defensive ends.

There was another defensive back on those teams who earned his Gold Jacket as a coach but carried on that tough defensive mindset.

"I just remember the dominance and just the physical awesomeness," Tony Dungy said. "I remember scouting him and saying this guy is going to be a great player, but then when we're on the sideline opposite each other, it just took your breath away.

"To me, a Hall of Famer is that guy that you have to plan for. And so every time you played them, we knew we could not let Julius Peppers wreck the game. How are we going to handle him? How are we going to get the double team on him? How are we going to chip him? How are we going to stay away from him?

"That's, to me, what it's all about, when you are that guy that the other team says we've got to come up with a specialized game plan to try to keep you under control."

He nodded when Robinson's assessment came up, agreeing that Peppers would have been a force in any era.

"He had that athleticism, that freakish athleticism, but the toughness and just the mental capacity to say, hey, I'm going to gut it out no matter what happens," Dungy agreed. And that's what I admired about him: when you got those double teams, when you got extra guys blocking you, he didn't let it slow him down."

Bill Cowher was coaching the Steelers when Peppers was drafted in 2002 but had no illusion he'd be anywhere close to their range. Not that he didn't dream about having that kind of player on his defenses — or even his offenses.

"I thought he was the prototype defensive end that could be a stand-up linebacker; he could probably do whatever he wanted to do," Cowher said. He's one of those guys. You want to be in a three-point stance, get in a three-point stance. You want to stand up, stand up. Julius Peppers is a pretty special athlete with a unique skill set. And obviously, that's why he's in the Hall of Fame.

"He was an old-school player with a new type of body. He could probably play multiple positions. I think he could probably be in the Hall of Fame as a tight end if he really wanted to be. He was that good of an athlete, that productive and reliable."

His athleticism was clear from his days in college, whether you were watching football or basketball tape. So, the guys who watched more tape than anyone know.

"Great athletic ability, obviously tremendous size, prototypical size and athletic ability, incredible flexibility," Hall of Fame general manager (and original Panthers GM) Bill Polian said. That's the basketball part of him, which is rare for a man that big. And tremendous competitiveness, the ideal body, the better-than-ideal flexibility and bend to get to the passer, and terrific mentality.

"You rarely, at least in all the years I was doing it. You rarely ever looked at a player (in the draft) and said that guy's a good bet for Canton. He's one of the few that I've said that from day one. You didn't need to spot it. He found you."