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DeMarcus Ware on what’s wrong with the Cowboys, and the importance of leaders in NFL locker rooms

Yahoo Sports senior NFL writer Terez Paylor spoke with former All-Pro NFL DE DeMarcus Ware about the problems facing the Dallas Cowboys, his experience being a leader on a Super Bowl champion team, and his new workout app, “Driven to Win.”

Video Transcript

TEREZ PAYLOR: OK, I'm here with former Dallas Cowboys legend, former Denver Broncos legend, DeMarcus Ware, who's speaking on behalf of his app, Driven to Win. Just real, real quick, because I'm sure that, I know you spend some time in Dallas still. What do you make of their struggles this season? Does this feel like the season of hell from the Cowboys, and how do you fix it?

DEMARCUS WARE: I think it's one of those, we're going to call it the pandemic season. Usually, a new coach comes in. He implements his, his character of the team, what the team is about. McCarthy, then, wasn't able to do that, right? But also that's when the leadership is developed, the way you get your captains right before the season because all the OTAs, mini camps and training camps, you find who those guys are, and now I don't see a lot of that leadership when the guys are out there playing. So two things. The guys not being prepared like they should defensively and then the leadership. I think those two things are missing that we didn't get during the off season.

TEREZ PAYLOR: What are the steps that need to be taken here? Bring back Dak? Make some changes on the defensive side of the ball? Just, what do you think?

DEMARCUS WARE: I think get a lot of guys back from injuries. There's a lot of guys on offense to where the trenches can't be moved if you don't have your starter offensive line. So guess what. You can't feed Zeke.

And then secondly, from a defensive standpoint, who are those really driven leaders, where if it's DeMarcus Lawrence, if it's Aldon Smith, Leighton Vander Esch, Sean Lee, whoever it is-- who's going to be that guy, now, that when they put that finger down, things need to get done, and they get done right then?

TEREZ PAYLOR: Isn't that the thing, like the best teams, the best defenses, I mean, you were part of a Super Bowl champion. Like the best teams hold each other accountable, right? The players do.

DEMARCUS WARE: Yeah. Yeah, the thing is, like, I remember when I was with Denver, accountability was everything. If we messed up in practice, guess what? We stopped practice. The coach didn't have to stop practice, so we policed ourselves. Sometimes it's hard to police your friends, but when I start to look at it as when you wear that C, that means that I have nominated you to be that a-hole in the locker room to get us right, because I know that no matter what, you are going to be doing it right 100% of the time, and I'm going to listen to you, because you're here before us, you're here after us, and you're here during this process doing more and far beyond any other player that's here.

TEREZ PAYLOR: Do you have one quick story you can share where you had to be the a-hole to a guy, and maybe they didn't appreciate it at the time, but later on they was like, yeah, you were right. You got it. And that's why I say one you can share, because I know you got one, but you can't be sharing everything.

DEMARCUS WARE: Yeah, no, it was a time to where me and Peyton, we were playing together, and I knew in his contract that as a pass rusher you cannot touch him in practice and knock the ball out. So there was one time to where I beat Ryan Clady underneath, and Peyton had the ball, like, really low. And so I went by and just knocked the ball out, right? And he looked at me like, are you, what? And everybody, like, got really quiet. And I say, let me tell y'all mother-- you know, what.

If Peyton holds his power like this, and another defensive guy gets a hold to this ball, and he knocks his ball out, guess what? We're going to lose the football game, I said, and Peyton looked at me. He was like, all right, I got you, so me and him, bickering back and forth. And Peyton came to me after. He said, now I see why you did that. He said, I actually stopped holding it low like that, and guess what? He never, he never fumbled the ball anyways, but he took better care of the ball. Just one time. It takes that one instance.

TEREZ PAYLOR: Awesome. Now for the reason you're on, man. You got a cool new app out. It's called driven to win. I want you, and you can get it on the app store on your mobile device or just go to DrivenToWin.com for more information, but tell people what you want them to know about this, this product.

DEMARCUS WARE: You know, I've been working on this app for the last two and a half years. They've been wondering why I've been doing a lot of these fitness workout videos on social. But I've been working on this, and I wanted to give people the real athlete experience in your iPhone to where I've enhanced that, to where you use 3D models, augmented reality, but also artificial intelligence that grows with you, all of the stuff and tools that athletes use. And I'm giving it to you.

If you're at home work out person, great. If you're a beginner, great. If you're male, if you're female, great. I have all of the content in there for you to enhance your experience if you can't leave the house, especially during this pandemic.

TEREZ PAYLOR: Awesome, awesome. Hey, man, thank you so much for being so generous with your time. We appreciate it.

DEMARCUS WARE: All right, thank you.