Longtime Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware opens up about how he wasn’t inducted into the 2022 NFL Hall of Fame Class.
In 2022, eight former NFL players were chosen to be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame: tackle Tony Boselli, wide receiver Cliff Branch, safety LeRoy Butler, official Art McNally, linebacker Sam Mills, defensive end/defensive tackle Richard Seymour, coach Dick Vermeil and defensive tackle/defensive end Bryant Young.
One name conspicuously left off of that exclusive list was DeMarcus Ware, the star-studded Cowboys/Broncos edge rusher with plenty of accolades and titles to his name. But the bronze bust in Canton still, unfairly, eludes Ware — for now. Ware, who is now a Sleep Number ambassador, spoke with FanSided’s Mark Carman about how it felt when there was no knock at the door this year.
“You know, the thing is, I put my resume in, and I always tell them, “Sometimes, you knock at the door, and it doesn’t always open for you,” Ware told Carman. “And I’ve been that guy where it usually doesn’t open on the first time, but I’m the guy that’s always staying hungry — I’m gonna keep knocking — and eventually, that door’s gonna open up and that opportunity’s gonna be there.”
“So sometimes, it’s not the first time,” Ware continued. “The first is usually not part of my story, but maybe No. 2 will be.”
Ware may have been understanding that he wasn’t named, but it wasn’t something that he was expecting, either.
“I thought that everything was in place,” Ware said. “I know the guys that are in front of me — all of them are Hall of Famers — so I was like, ‘Alright, D, you’ve done what you needed to do: you’ve won the Super Bowl…’ All the accolades, all of them, they’re all there. But it’s upon what is gonna be the character of that whole deal that they’re doing that year? And I guess I wasn’t a part of that.”
NFL legend DeMarcus Ware speaks up about unexpected Hall of Fame snub
For the unfamiliar, DeMarcus Ware terrorized offenses from 2005-2016, helping the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl in his short three-year tenure there.
The majority of his NFL career was in Dallas, where he racked up 117 sacks. This is the most in Cowboys franchise history.
As Carman noted, Ware had 138 career sacks, which is even more than Lawrence Taylor, who is considered by many to be the greatest edge rusher of all time. Ware’s got the edge on Taylor numbers-wise, yet still remains outside the Hall of Fame.
It’s not a matter of if Ware will be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but when. Ideally, Canton won’t make him wait any longer than another year.