A system for, and method of, selectively detaching point-to-point protocol header information from a packet received from a network and a network adapter incorporating the system or the method. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a sub-protocol detector that receives the packet and identifies therefrom a sub-protocol employed with respect to the packet and (2) a header detacher, coupled to the sub-protocol detector, that detaches at least some of the point-to-point protocol header information from the packet based on an identity of the sub-protocol thereby to reduce an overall size of the packet.