DeMarcus Ware is an absolute monster when it comes to getting after the quarterback. As a rookie in 2005, Ware had an impressive eight sacks. Since then, he has not recorded less than 11 sacks in a season and has played every game of his career. As he chases Michael Strahan’s single-season sack record, Ware said Bill Parcells deserves a lot of the credit for making him into the player he has become. As you might expect, Parcells’ motivation did not come in the form of coddling.
During a recent podcast interview with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, Ware said that in 2005 Parcells told him, “You’re going to amount to nothing.” Ware was the 11th overall pick in the draft, so Parcells and company had to have seen something special in him. That did not, however, stop the Dallas coach from making his new linebacker fetch him Gatorade — orange Gatorade in particular — and getting pissed if Ware came back with the purple kind.
“Every single day he would stay on you, even if you did something well, he wouldn’t even acknowledge it,” Ware explained. “He would just walk away.”
Ware also recalled Parcells nodding at him after he recorded his first career sack, which he said was enough to show him that his coach approved and believed in him. DeMarcus has gone on to record 91 more sacks since he got the nod — no pun intended — from Parcells. Ware said Parcells taught him how to prepare for opponents and the importance of bringing a new game plan every week. Whatever it was that he said or did to him, I’d say it worked.
Helmet smack to The Dallas Morning News for passing along the interview.
