Ware Q&A: Everything lines up

SAN ANTONIO – In five years, Dallas Cowboys outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware(notes) not only has compiled 64½ sacks, but he has become arguably the most important non-quarterback in the league. He has registered at least 11 sacks in each of the past four years, including a career-high 20 in 2008.

Ware was rewarded with a six-year, $78 million contract extension last season. However, his great play has resulted in only one playoff victory.

As the Cowboys opened training camp this weekend, Ware talked about not only the challenge of leading the team deeper in the playoffs and getting 20 sacks again, but of even greater achievements on a personal level. He and wife Taniqua (Ware's high school sweetheart) adopted their daughter, Marley, almost 2½ years ago and now are expecting a boy in December after suffering through three miscarriages earlier in their marriage.

Ware also does extensive charity work, such as with the NFL's Play 60 program, and volunteers at the Jonathan's Place shelter in Dallas.

Jason Cole: Talk about your experience with adopting Marley.

DeMarcus Ware: People really don't realize the blessings you can give another child, but also the blessings they can give to you. When we went to the adoption agency and we had an opportunity to adopt Marley, we were really thinking about what kind of child she was, that this was our blessing, that she is our child and that this is what God wanted us to do. Just from that, Marley is starting to realize just how much we love her and she's showing that love back. She's just a bundle of joy. Just from working with Jonathan's Place, I see a lot of kind of battered kids go in there, looking for shelter. It's a lot of inner-city kids, even some families looking for shelter. The kids will come in there for clothes or toys or whatever they need and then they'll be there for months. Then those kids will get a family to come help them out and you see the way they change from being all scared to blossoming, then getting a job, then thriving. They don't have that fear about what's going to happen to them and that's one thing Marley didn't have. We took all that away, all that fear. We took all that anxiety away from her and gave her a loving family.

Cole: Does she understand that she's not your biological child?

Ware: She's so young that she don't get that right now. We put that in her head, not that she was adopted, but that she was a blessing. We're going to tell her eventually who her mom is, everything. Give her a chance to meet her mom, whatever that may be. The thing is, you can never keep that hidden. It has to all be upfront so she understands.

Cole: You want to make sure she's completely comfortable with who she is.

Ware: Absolutely.

Cole: Your wife is five months along on this pregnancy. That's great, but is there any nervousness about it after the three miscarriages she has already had? That's a lot of heartache.

Ware: No nerves at all. People sometimes say, "You can't have kids?" or "There is going to be some kind of complication." Then this happens and there is another opportunity to have a child. So why be afraid? Yeah, you do get scared a little more each time. But it's sort of like, what have we not been through? We're taking that mentality and we're taking it as far as it will go.

Cole: A boy?

Ware: Yeah, a little boy. After losing two boys and now being surrounded by women in the house, this is that opportunity to have a little sidekick beside me. It's a blessing.

Cole: Got a name yet?

Ware: No, not yet. He'll probably be a junior, DeMarcus Jr.

Cole: So really, there are a lot of great things coming together in your life at the same time. Does this put a different emotional spin on the season for you?

Ware: I don't think it puts any different spin on this season. It's just about being grateful for the things that you have. It's not that it's a special opportunity; it's just that this is [what] you have in front of you.

Cole: What's up with this plan to have training camp in San Antonio and in Oxnard, Calif.? That sounds like it could be distracting.

Ware: Really, if you ask me in a few days where I am, I don't even really know. Because of the schedule and whatever else we have to do and how tough it is, I don't even know where I am a lot of the time. But I think this way, because of the schedule and traveling around, we're going to have a couple of more days off. On those travel days, we'll get to rest and you usually don't get that in camp. So it's actually a benefit. Usually, you're going back-to-back-to-back for a whole month. You don't get any days off. But now were going to fly to Canton [for the Hall of Fame game], fly to Dallas. Then we're going to fly to Oxnard. And you can't practice those days, so it's an extra day off. Get some sleep. I can sleep anywhere. You give me an opportunity to lay my head down for a couple of hours, it's good.

Cole: What's going to get this team beyond where it has gone the past three years? I know you got your first playoff victory in 13 years last season, but there's much more expected for the Cowboys.

Ware: I think we've already been taken beyond that. We've had a taste of the postseason and now were coming back to this training camp taking that momentum into this regular season. If we can take that momentum and build on it, it's like that opportunity I was talking about before, that opportunity to get to the end. Those teams that get to the end, they are the teams that are hungry and happy. It's 197 days to the end. That's what we talked about on the first day of training camp. It's 197 days to the end that we want.

Cole: Has it been frustrating the past three years having as good a team as you've had and not progressing further?

Ware: It's not frustrating when you see guys give 110 percent, giving their all, and then it's just little mistakes that allow you to get beat. Those are the things that we're working on now. Everybody wants to play well now. Everybody wants to play good and we understand what that takes.

Cole: You're one of the top two or three pass rushers in the game today. How much do you have to put on your shoulders either verbally or physically to help make this happen?

Ware: I think the team has matured and I think the guys around me have matured, so I really don't have to say much. Everybody recognizes when somebody messes up now, so it's not just me getting on somebody, it's everybody getting on somebody. We've got five other guys, 10 other guys, who are getting on people, so that pressure is off me. It's placed on everybody else and that's what it's all about, having the same mind-set as a whole team.

Cole: OK, but people say that the No. 1 guy, the top player on the team, has to set a tone.

Ware: I'm going to lead by example every day, every practice. I'm going to be doing the same thing. That's what guys like Jason Witten(notes) and Tony Romo(notes) do in every single practice and every single game. They set the tone. They might not be the most vocal guys, but we have a lot of guys who set the tone, who other guys look at and say, "He's giving 110 percent every day, I got to do the same thing."

Cole: Was that part of the reason last year when you got carted off the field that you had to return so quickly?

Ware: This is where my heart is, playing football. I breathe and eat it. Just to have the opportunity again and to see the guys looking at me in the locker room, you know how they give you that look like they're saying, "We need you." Feeling that need, it drove me and I just went out and played. It's all about the defensive guys with me. They're looking at me and you can feel it. They're saying, "Just give us a couple of plays. Two or three plays, one big play. Just give us that and we will take care of the rest."

Cole: As you look back at the first five years of your career, are you ever surprised at what you've done?

Ware: I do look at it that way, that I've accomplished a lot of things. But there's still a lot out there to do. I said to myself, "There's a lot you still haven't done." I consider myself like someone who hasn't accomplished that much and somebody's getting ready to take my job right now. To be honest, that's really how I see it.

Cole: OK, but you are really good.

Ware: You can ask anybody, and they'll tell you that I don't look at it that way. For some reason, there is no pedestal I'm putting myself on. It's the same thing every year. I just get out there and I want to prove it all over again. Guys look at me and tell me, "You're one of the best guys in the league." But I don't feel that way. I block that out and I think that's what keeps me driving to be better. I say to myself, "Block that out, don't let it get to your head."

Cole: Does that come from having played at a smaller school [Troy University] and not getting as much attention early on?

Ware: I think it does. When you come from nothing, when you come from a small school and you finally establish who you are, you don't want anyone take that away from you.

Cole: The big contract you signed last season, that's a combination of both relief and pressure. It allows you a certain freedom in your life, but it also comes with expectation.

Ware: Somebody asked me, "DeMarcus, is there more pressure now having that big contract and being that guy?" I said, "You know what? It's more comfort for me." Now, I have a contract and I don't have to worry about negotiations. I know my work got me to where I am now and my job is to bring pressure on the quarterback. The pressure part is on me, that's what I do. That's what I like to do. That pressure part is no big thing to me.

Cole: You talk about blocking things out, but are there things that people say to you that drive you?

Ware: One of my friends actually said to me one time, "You'll never get 20 sacks again." The funny thing is that when I got 20 sacks, I didn't feel like I was playing up to my full ability. So I know I'm going to get there again and I told him, "You're going to eat your words."

Cole: Who said that?

Ware: I'm not going to tell you, but he said, "You'll never get 20 sacks again." I said: "I'll show you. You'll see."

Cole: You got a bet riding?

Ware: A little something.

Cole: What is it?

Ware: I'm not going to tell you.

Cole: Come on.

Ware: When I get there, you come talk to me and I'll tell you what it is.