Team News from 3Com® Park
Peterson Enjoying Pro Bowl
The way Julian Peterson sees it, a trip to Hawaii for the NFL Pro Bowl is a perfect reward for a job well done during the just-completed 2002 season. The 49ers´ linebacker, along with his parents and some childhood friends, have been taking in the sun and fun in Honolulu all this week, decompressing from a long season.
´It´s the first time in Hawaii for me and my family and friends, and we´re enjoying ourselves,´ said Peterson, a third-year player making his first Pro Bowl appearance. ´Beautiful weather... while everybody else is cold and freezing up north, I´m down here with my shorts and my mai tais!´
Peterson is one of six 49ers in the Pro Bowl, which will air Sunday at 2:30 p.m. PST on ABC. The others are QB Jeff Garcia, C Jeremy Newberry, WR Terrell Owens, G Ron Stone and DT Bryant Young. Getting to mingle with some of the other Pro Bowlers here in Honolulu has been one of the highlights of the trip for Peterson.
´I´ve been around some great players and getting to know everybody,´ he said. ´Being a rookie to this, it´s been a great experience. I can´t ask for anything else.´ He added that it´s been fun ´reflecting on the season and the bumps and bruises, catching up on some better things besides going against each other.´
Perhaps the best example of that was a scene earlier this week as Peterson was chatting with Giants TE Jeremy Shockey before an NFC practice at Aloha Stadium. The Peterson-Shockey matchup was highly publicized before the Giants-49ers playoff game, and both players engaged in the war of words before that contest. But in this case, the conversation was entirely friendly.
´We just talked about being out here and having fun,´ said Peterson. ´Catching up with each other after practice, stuff like that. We´ll have the individual battles during the season, but this is the... reward, so now we can just kick back and relax a little.´
The reward is also a nice incentive to make it back in future years. Peterson looked around at perennial Pro Bowlers on the NFC defense alone -- players such as Tampa Bay´s Derrick Brooks, who is making his sixth Pro Bowl appearance, and Young, who is making his fourth -- and noted that it would be nice to make this trip a regular thing.
´Definitely,´ said Peterson. ´You see the camaraderie around here, the great players. It´s fun. It´s nice to know your peers have put you in this situation to be with so many great players. Hopefully I can keep it going.´
