Former Dallas Cowboys DE DeMarcus Ware eyeing possible Hall of Fame induction in 2022
Now that Drew Pearson has been voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the question now becomes when will another Dallas Cowboys legend be enshrined into football immortality?
The answer could be as soon as next season.
Defensive end DeMarcus Ware and quarterback Tony Romo will be on the ballot for the first time.
While Romo is a Cowboys’ fan favorite and owner of all the team’s major passing records, he is unlikely to make the cut with the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2022.
But Ware is a completely different story.
Ware, picked in the first round in 2005, spent nine seasons with the Cowboys before departing in 2013 as the franchise’s all-time leader in quarterback sacks with 117. He played three seasons for the Denver Broncos, playing a key role on their Super Bowl title team in 2015.
Ware’s 138.5 sacks ranks ninth all-time in league history. Six of the eight players ahead of him are already in the Hall of Fame and the other two, Julius Peppers and Terrell Suggs, are not yet eligible.
Ware made the Pro Bowl nine times. He was first-team All-Pro four times. He led the NFL in sacks twice and was a member of the All-Decade Team of the 2000s.
Ware headlines the prospective Class of 2022 that is not filled with any other first-time locks and he has admittedly started to think about it.
“As a player you don’t think about that stuff, but now that you are retired you realize this is your opportunity to be enshrined in that fraternity that will last forever. Immortality,” said Ware, who spends much of his team these days running his new gym 3Volt Fitness in Trophy Club.
It is not something he even dreamed about as a kid, growing up in Auburn, Alabama. Back then, football was more about finding a way to eat and survive.
“I remember sitting at the Boys and Girls Club listening to [former two-sport star] Bo Jackson,” Ware said. “Bo Jackson said ‘if you got to college, they would feed you for free’. He was talking about getting fed. It was about getting you off the streets. I didn’t even know who he was. I know I had to get food on the table, cut the grass and get some eggs from the hen house.”
When Ware got to the Cowboys as the 11th overall pick, he wasn’t thinking about the Hall of Fame then either. He was just a small-town kid trying to prove himself.
“They didn’t know I had that edge and I had that grit,” Ware said. “When I started playing, I just wanted to beat the guy in front of me. It was simple to me.”
Simple turned into spectacular, and now a shot at football immortality awaits.
Other 2022 Hall candidates
Receivers Andre Johnson, Steve Smith and Anquan Boldin are the other high-profile first-time candidates for the Class of 2022, although none would seem to be locks.
That could open the door for former Cowboys safety Darren Woodson, a semifinalist five times, including in 2021, to possibly make the cut.
Woodson, who won three Super Bowl titles with the Cowboys in the 1990s, is the team’s all-time leader in tackles with 1,350. He also had 23 interceptions, was a five-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time All-Pro pick.
Woodson’s candidacy should only be helped by former Tampa Bay and Denver safety John Lynch’s induction in 2021. They have similar career stats, plus Woodson was the better all-round player and was more versatile.
Everson Walls, Chuck Howley, Harvey Martin and Ed Jones are potential considerations for the Hall of Fame Senior Committee, which considers players whose careers ended at least 25 years earlier.
But it’s unlikely they will submit a Cowboys player one year after nominating Pearson in 2021 and two years after Cliff Harris was voted in as a member of the Centennial Class of 2020.
