GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The play itself has little or no relevance to Sunday's game at Soldier Field, except for the fact that Julius Peppers joked that he's on the other side of the Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears rivalry because of it.

And even Peppers couldn't say that with a straight face.

But nonetheless, his near sack of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- with the emphasis on near -- in last year's regular-season finale was his final play in a Bears uniform. If not for fullback John Kuhn's desperation cut block of Peppers, which gave Rodgers the time necessary to heave the 48-yard, game-winning touchdown pass to Randall Cobb, so much would have been different.

The Bears, and not the Packers, would have been NFC North champs.

"We joked about it," Peppers said of Kuhn and his block. "He actually cost me my job. He got me released. I guess it turned out pretty good."

The Bears indeed cut Peppers two months later but not because he couldn't avoid Kuhn’s block. Rather, they did not think he was worth the $13.9 million they would have had to pay him, something Peppers surely knows was more important than one play.

"If I would've made the play, I probably wouldn't be here now," Peppers said standing in front of his locker at Lambeau Field with a sizeable grin on his face. "It's kind of like one of those things like at the time it was the worst thing that could've happened. But now it's like the best thing that could've happened."

Peppers made only a negligible impact on the Packers' first two games of the season but put together what they hope was a breakout performance in Sunday's loss to the Lions. Peppers recorded his first sack as a Packer -- and the 120th of his 13-year NFL career -- and in the process stripped quarterback Matthew Stafford and recovered the fumble. He also was credited with two quarterback hits and three hurries by ProFootballFocus.com to double his season totals in each category.

"He's definitely been everything I thought he would be," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "And I think he's getting more and more comfortable."

But how comfortable will it be for Peppers on Sunday, when he returns to Soldier Field as the visitor? He insisted, as he has done repeatedly since coming to the Packers, that he holds no ill will toward the Bears.

"It was never hard feelings, never hard feelings," he said. "It's the business. People change teams all the time. People might not go from Green Bay to Chicago or from Chicago to Green Bay all the time, but people change teams all the time. It's nothing really extraordinary about this situation."

In fact, he said his return to Chicago will be nothing like when he went back to Carolina in 2010 as a member of the Bears after playing his first eight seasons with the Panthers.

"Carolina is home," Peppers said. "So that was the main thing; it was home. Chicago wasn't really home. It was more of a place ... it wasn't home. So, that's the difference."