DeMarcus Ware Named NFC Defensive Player of the Week
DeMarcus Ware was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts in helping the Cowboys earn their first win of the season on the road at Houston. It marks his fourth career defensive player of the week.
Ware led the team with 3.0 sacks in the Houston game to tie his career high (five other times). It also marked the 14th multiple sack game of his career. He is tied with Randy White for the third-most multi-sack games in club history since sacks became an official statistic:
Multi-sack
Player.................Games
Greg Ellis................19
Jim Jeffcoat............19
Randy White...........14 DeMarcus Ware.....14
Ware now has 68.5 career sacks with 29.0 coming on third down, including all three of his sacks in the Houston game. He also led the team with three tackles for loss and three pressures while his eight tackles tied for second on the team.
Drew Brees Wins $100,000 Pepsi Refresh Project Grant For Idea To Help Hope Lodge
PURCHASE, NY - The votes are in and more than 500,000 fans have spoken - Drew Brees is the winner of a $100,000 Pepsi Refresh grant that will help New Orleans-based Hope Lodge provide rooms for cancer patients and their caregivers. This past week, fans had the opportunity to cast their votes at www.nfl.com/PepsiRefresh or via text by typing the player's first name to P-E-P-S-I (73774) for the idea they believed should be awarded a grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.
New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware also campaigned for votes for their ideas to further projects important to them Sanchez: building awareness around the signs of type 1 or juvenile diabetes and Ware: providing a safe environment for abused, abandoned and neglected children. Although their idea didn't receive the most votes, Pepsi is awarding each a $25,000 Refresh Project grant to help make a difference in America's communities."I'm thrilled that $100,000 will be going to the Hope Lodge, which will provide cancer patients and their caregiver's rooms through the Pepsi Refresh Project," said Brees. "We're all winners in this project. These grants will help make a real difference in our communities. Thanks to the fans who voted, the support has been outstanding for all of us."The Pepsi Refresh Project is a groundbreaking effort to foster innovation in social good that will award more than $20 million this year to fund great ideas that improve America's communities.
Throughout 2010, Pepsi will fund ideas that will move the world forward in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. The Pepsi Refresh Project will feature significant social engagement around people and the power of ideas. Pepsi Refresh Project launched on Jan. 13 and exceeded expectations by receiving the monthly limit of 1,000 submissions in less than seven days. People are encouraged to submit their ideas and cast a vote for their favorite projects at www.refresheverything.com.
Thursday, July 9: DeMarcus and Taniqua Ware join Gatorade to raise awareness to Parents and Coaches about the importance of heat safety. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD "THE HEAT SAFETY KIT"
Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware was making the rounds Thursday morning, courtesy of Gatorade, spreading the word about the NFL’s "Beat The Heat" campaign.
He is trying to save lives of youth football players, so it felt a little awkward to just jump in with, "Good morning. So did you really hide from coaches on the sidelines so Greg Ellis could play?" So I began asking about heat and hydration and how to stay healthy instead.
"Guys are fighting for jobs, so they don’t want to come out," DeMarcus explained. "But you have to take yourself out sometimes."
Well, DeMarcus, since you brought it up, did you?
Because Ellis kind of, sort of, totally implied you were very good at taking yourself out of games. In fact, in a radio interview with Michael Irvin on Wednesday, Ellis said you tapped out and hid from coaches to allow him to have more playing time. And he kind of made it seem like you put your friendship above what was best for the team.
"I didn’t do that," Ware said.
So do you want to address his claims?
"I don’t," Ware said. "Certain things come out that way and you just have to deal."
He stepped very diplomatically around the train wreck that is Ellis, noting only that he had played most defensive snaps. He refrained from calling Ellis a liar, or just generally voicing what the rest of us have been thinking, which is "Good gosh, this dude is imploding."
Ware is a good guy, and what is the point?
Ellis is a Raider. His whining is irrelevant.
What this needs to be is the last time Ware steps gingerly around any Cowboys issues. What this team needs from Ware, aside from another monster season, is for him to be an unabashed leader, willing to jump butts, speak truth and step in, lest we have a repeat of last season’s locker-room disaster where players were tattling and calling each other snitches and cowards and just basically backstabbing. And who was going to stop them? Coach Cupcake? T.O.? Ellis?
Good news: Ware says he’s ready to step into that leadership void.
"I think I have to ... and this year, this team, is one of the best teams I have been on in terms of listening and cooperating," Ware said. "I can go talk to Romo, and he’ll take criticism. And he can come talk to me, and I’ll take criticism."
And I believe Ware when he says this.
He’s sick of losing and failing in December and failing in playoff games and just generally of not being as good as expectations. Just in case anybody wonders if Ware has enough mean in him to be a leader, he promises he’s neither as soft-spoken nor as nice as he appears — especially on the field and in the locker room.
Could a more in-your-face Ware have saved last season? Probably not.T.O. had that locker room so screwed up by December that Oprah did not have a chance. And with him gone, guys like Ware have a much easier time in cohesion, right?
"I’ll just put it this way: When guys feel like they are part of the team, they are more willing to cooperate because they are part of something," Ware said.
Hmmm, I wonder what he might be inferring?
Of course, the giggle is Ellis’ tall tale of Ware trying to right coaching wrongs by tapping out began with leadership talk. Ellis said his ability to quell the T.O. insurrection had been stripped by Cowboys coaches who insisted on playing Anthony Spencer. Or else by his own growing rep as a selfish whiner.
Not that Ellis understands this. He obviously and disappointingly has lost touch with reality.
"It’s a disgrace when DeMarcus Ware comes off the field just so I can get in the game and, when the coaches tell him to come on the field, he tries to hide so I can play," was exactly what Ellis said to Irvin.
Luckily the Hall of Famer followed with a form of "huh?"
"He would say, 'G, come on,’ " Ellis said. "And I would tell him, 'No, DeMarcus, go ahead, man. You’re coming up on your contract year. Don’t mess that stuff up. Go ahead and do you, and we’re just going to do what the coaches, or whoever the powers that be, what they want to do.’ "
Guessing about the motivations of a tortured soul like Ellis is dangerous. Who knows why a guy would go scorched-earth on his good name, which he had spent most of his time in Dallas building? I have not a clue, but what I think Ellis was trying to say is, "I know nobody takes my whining about playing time seriously any more but, see, it is not just me. My teammates agreed the Cowboys coaches are idiots."
This is just Ellis being Ellis. So Ware was right to mostly ignore.
But if anybody else tries to drop a grenade in this locker room, like a year ago, Ware absolutely has to be willing to get in his face. Has to. Or else whoever the next Ellis is has a chance to ruin another season.
Beat the Heat The NFL, including DeMarcus Ware and his wife, Taniqua, and Gatorade have joined forces to educate coaches, athletes and parents about the importance of hydration in helping to avoid heat-related illnesses. Go to www.nfl.com/trainingcamp for more information on the campaign. And every time there’s a unique download of the Gatorade Heat Safety kit on the Web site, Gatorade will donate $1, up to $25,000, to Beat to Heat charities.
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