Earlier this week, former Cowboys linebacker Greg Ellis claimed that current Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware tried during the 2008 season to take himself out of games to give Ellis playing time.
Ellis told Michael Irvin on ESPN 103.3 in Dallas that Ware would even hide from coaches in an effort to give Ellis, who believes he was being intentionally frozen out, a chance to play.
Coincidentally, Ware has been making the radio rounds as part of an effort to improve hydration awareness, as part of the NFL's Beat the Heat campaign. (TacoBill has obtained photographic evidence of Ware's work.) And so DeMarcus appeared on Sirius NFL Radio's The Opening Drive just as the remarks from Ellis were becoming widely know, and Ware disputed the claims.
The folks from Sirius XM sent us a partial transcript of Ware's appearance.
"I think that everybody at the end of the day got ample amount of time," Ware told Bob Papa and Randy Cross, "and I went back and looked at a lot of the things, and I, what, played in like 95 percent of the plays? And, you know, maybe sometimes guys rush better against certain guys, so I don't know. I don't know what the deal is, but at the end of the day, I did what I can do to help the team out last year."
Ware also explained that, if/when he did exit games, it wasn't to help Ellis get reps, but to ensure that Ware remained fresh.
"If you're out there playing what, nine or 10 plays, you're going full speed, you're giving it your all, and all of a sudden your body gets fatigued and you really can't go anymore, but you have this next guy that's maybe the second-string guy or whatever that comes in that's going to do better than you can do in three plays," Ware said. "So would you rather have a player that's out there just trying to give it his all and he's not doing anything, you get a touchdown scored on you because the guy's tired, or would you rather want to give that guy two or three plays off and so when he comes back in there, he's getting sacks, he's making those big plays to get the offense back the ball?
"And that's the main thing: you gotta have that rotation. I think we had that rotation last year. So you gotta rotate guys in and out to make sure everybody's fresh and everything goes really clean and clear."
Ware made similar remarks during an appearance on 1310-AM in Dallas: "You know, I just
think that everybody got an ample amount of playing time, for what it
was worth," Ware said, via the Dallas Morning News. "At the
end of the day, if I was off the field, there was a reason why I was
off the field. Maybe Greg rushed the passer better against a certain
guy. But I think at the end of the day, the time that guys got is how
it is."
Though Ware used his words carefully, he essentially is saying that Ellis is full of crap.
DeMarcus Ware disputes Ellis' claim
Posted by Mike Florio on July 10, 2009 7:36 AM ET
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I'm not sold on your interpretation, Mike. At the very least, the word "dispute" I do not believe is necessarily correct.
It very well can be a case of two people looking at an identical situation differently. DeMarcus Ware never denied the specific claim of "hiding" from coaches. He did not sound angry in his "rebuttal," and if one is falsely accused of doing something, surely he or she would put up a fierce defense.
It sounded as if Ware rationalized the situation by claiming that what occurred was for the overall good of the team. Ware said, "[Y]ou gotta rotate guys in and out to make sure everybody's fresh and everything goes really clean and clear."
Who's deciding this rotation? Ware? Were there times when a coach wanted him to be in the game, but Ware felt it was best for Greg Ellis to get a chance, while at the same time getting a breather himself? Additionally, why would Ellis make such a claim up? Why?
Now, all of this seems to be chattering mumbo jumbo. And not really a big deal. But I think, for conscience' sake (yes, there is not supposed to be an "s" after that apostrophe according to certain StyleBooks because of the first letter of the next word), it's important to do more investigation, closely compare statements, and find out the truth. Perhaps Ware's statement of not denying that he didn't want "out" of plays is a mere conformation of Ellis' theory.
Maybe someone with access will truly get to the bottom of the statemebts. Or maybe more will be clear when more transcripts become available. We shall see.
Interesting that Ellis would make statements like this when, especially in today's info overload world, the numbers/stats are available for all to see just how "full of crap" he really is!
According to Mickey Spagnola, a columnist for DallasCowboys.com, "I know for a fact Ware participated in 97-point-something percent of the plays, and if we're rounding out to the closest whole number, that then becomes 98 percent of the plays. Think about that now, Ware only sat out two percent of the 969 plays. That comes to 19.38 plays missed . . . FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. Divide that over 16 games, and that comes to sitting out an average of 1.2 plays a game.
Even more enlightening would be factoring in the Seattle game. That hyper-extended knee caused him to miss 13 plays in the fourth quarter, or right at 67 percent of all the plays he missed last year. Furthermore, that means in the other 15 games when he supposedly was trying to hide, Ware only missed like six plays - like less than a half-play a game."
Gotta agree with Mr. Spagnola. Apparently, DWare ain't very good at hiding!!
Run on off to obscurity in the silver and black Mr. Ellis. Sad, after a pretty decent career with the Cowboys too.
That Cowboys locker room wasn't dysfunctional last season. I don't care what anyone says.
Well, just because you're paranoid it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't out to get you. Ellis has been developing paranoia about his role/playing time/position/contract ever since Parcells arrived in Dallas and made him change positions from DE in a 4-3 to OLB in 3-4. Ellis NEVER liked it and developed this paranoia from day one.
If you take a look at the amount of time Ware played (roughly 96% of defensive snaps by Cowboys statistical records) you can see pretty clearly that Ellis is full of it. During the season Dallas played 969 defensive snaps (58/game which, btw I think is far too many, Dallas had trouble closing out 3rd downs) so, if Ware played 96% of those he played in 55/game, meaning he was off the field on all of 3 defensive plays/game on average. Add to that that he missed 13 plays in the Seattle game after hyperextending his knee and the plays/game is ridiculously low. In the 2nd Giants game he was off the field for one series in the 2nd half -- a series in which Dallas sacked Manning twice for about 20 yards in losses - maybe that's what Ellis is referring to?). Wow, 3 plays in a game, that's truly shirking now.
Ware took the high road and didn't call Ellis a liar to his face. Ware is a class act, unlike Ellis, who was at one time but appears to have devolved into a whiny 3rd grader.
He is NOT saying that Ellis is full of crap. He just doesnt want to make him self look like he is ducking playing time - And he doenst want to anger the fans or coaches of his current team.
Ellis threw him under the bus. Str8 up.
Here we go. Because he is now a Raider, we must bash him for being irrational. The media pile-on of everything Raiders is really getting annoying. The Raiders will be one of the most improved teams in the league this year, they had one of the best offseasons, and yet the media can only make negative comments when talking about anything Raiders. "The Raiders will never be taken seriously as long as Al Davis is in charge." Wow we've never heard that one before. NFL coverage is a joke anymore.
He actually did NOT say that Ellis was wrong. He just tried to put a better spin on it.
"Here we go. Because he is now a Raider, we must bash him for being irrational. "
Why can't we bash him just because he's being irrational? The guy says he could have taken on more of a leadership role if he'd gotten more playing time last season, but fact is that Ellis had 10 years of ample playing time prior to last season and could never quite grasp that "leadership" thing. I guess he thinks that leadership involves criticizing teammates present and past like he's done. He's bitter because he got phased out. It's pure, simple, and obvious. He needs to get over himself. Like Gosselin said, Jerry Rice, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and plenty of other great players were cut, why is he surprised that he would be cut? He was merely a "good" player that never approached greatness. If he'd had the intelligence to STFU he'd still be drawing a paycheck from the Cowboys instead of the rudderless Raiders in the most overtaxed state in history. I hope he's enjoying the little bit that Pelosi and her friends let him keep.
Marty, Marty, Marty
Here is a game by game account of how many plays Ware was on the field vs how many defensive plays there were. Review this and please tell me where D Ware was 'ducking playing time'.
Opponent -- Ware snaps/defensive snaps
Cleveland - 50/50
Philadelphia - 67/68
Packers - 66/71
Washington - 73/74
Cincinnati - 68/69
Arizona - 59/59
St. Louis - 64/64
Tampa Bay - 68/68
New York - 71/74
Washington - 57/57
San Francisco - 53/55
Seattle -- 60/70 (sat out final 10 snaps after injuring knee)
Pittsburgh - 70/70
New York - 65/67
Baltimore - 71/71
Philadelphia - 59/59
Looks to me like (not counting the injury 'ducking' of 10 plays vs Seattle) that Ware 'ducked out' on exactly FOURTEEN plays out of 1,046 defensive plays (a stunningly negligent 1.6%)
Ware is too gentlemanly to call Ellis out. Brady James in not encumbered by that however:
"Never seen anything like that," James said with a bemused chuckle. "I don't know where that came from. Greg ... (sighs) ... we've just gotta move on.
"We're talking about probably the best defensive player in the league. There's no way he can hide. Even the birds, they know where No. 94 is, so there's no hide-and-go-seek."
Cowboys vs. Colts SB in 2010, count on it.
I heard when Ware is sleepy he hides from his wife and tells Greg Ellis to go have sex with her. Or in the morning when he is still groggy, he gets Greg to shake the last few drops out in the bathroom. Also Sports Writers as a whole will report anything despite glaring inaccuracies and general nonsense in their information. One of these statements is true, can you guess?
Greg Ellis has a long history of running his mouth and expressing "his" views and opinions. What he said was ridiculous and frankly I'm glad he is gone!
Shittsburgh says:
July 10, 2009 12:25 PM
Cowboys vs. Colts SB in 2010, count on it.
Colts, really?