Cowboys Exclusive: DeMarcus Ware - 'It Still Hurts' (But Hall of Fame News Would Help)

DeMarcus Ware to CowboysSI.com on the Hall of Fame: “I feel like I put my resume in … and hopefully … I’m able to put that jacket on.”

FRISCO - It's that time of the year again, to start considering the next class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A first-year eligible player is former Dallas Cowboys defensive standout DeMarcus Ware.

Ware talked to our own Mike Fisher on his possible induction to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a decision that will be announced on Thursday night.

“I got to play for the 'D' in Dallas and the 'D' in Denver and I brought the 'D' on both of those teams no matter what,” Ware said. “I feel like I put my resume in … and hopefully … I’m able to put that jacket on.”

Even though Ware hasn't played for the Cowboys since 2013, he's still an influence at The Star, to this generation of players and on the defensive side of the ball, and specifically on Demarcus Lawrence, “Just talking to Tank [Lawrence], he was saying that from last year to this year, he feels like he’s going to wear that 'C' on his chest with pride and that meant something to me. It’s not Captain America … to me that means you are captain of the team,” Ware said. 

“I put that 'C' on my chest because, now, I have the authority to make sure everybody stays in line because I want to be that champion. You chose me to put that 'C' on my chest and now I have [an] opportunity to … prove [to] each one of you that [I] can [lead] you to the Promise Land and … Demarcus Lawrence said he’s going to do that.”

Ware, who also tutored rookie Micah Parsons this year, was never quite able to do that for the Cowboys as a player, at a Super Bowl level. And his release from Dallas? We know it was painful for owner Jerry Jones.

"Yes, it still hurts,'' Ware told us.

Ware was an optimist in his prediction for the 2021 Cowboys season and he'll surely be that way in 2022. Maybe Dallas will be helped, buoyed, if D-Ware is named as a Hall of Fame standout.

Ware knows a little something about winning, of course, being a defensive anchor on the Denver Broncos' Super Bowl-winning team for the 2015 NFL season. 

Ware was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys 11th overall in the 2005 NFL Draft, and played in Dallas through the 2013 season when he left for the Broncos in free agency. If he makes the Thursday cut, he won't "go into the Hall as a Bronco'' or "as a Cowboy''; that's not the way Canton works.

But Cowboys Nation will know how it feels he'll always been remembered.