Despite not playing an NFL snap since Christmas Day 2016, former Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos superstar DeMarcus Ware has found himself in a number of recent headlines.
While the most obvious reason for that is his pending Hall of Fame induction, the retired linebacker also garnered some negative attention for his less-than-stellar rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” from Thursday’s Hall of Fame preseason game.
DeMarcus Ware sang the National Anthem for Demaryius Thomas. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/2AeTVpCMKT
— NFL (@NFL) August 4, 2023
The responses on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, were decidedly mixed. Some users were impressed with Ware’s courage (the man is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after all), while others blasted the retired star for his admittedly off-key rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Ware, who revealed he sang the national anthem on behalf of a deceased former teammate, has obviously taken this negative attention in stride and why shouldn’t he? The man is intimately familiar with capturing attention and headlines, given that he’s made something of a career of it.
And perhaps no bit of attention or headline was bigger than a play Ware made against someone else intimately linked with national anthems — Colin Kaepernick.
The play in question happened in a historic Sunday Night Football game between the Broncos and San Francisco 49ers in October 2014. Mind you, it wasn’t historic because of what Ware did in that game.
Instead, then-Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning broke the league record for career passing touchdowns that night (a record which has since been broken by Drew Brees and Tom Brady.)
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Lost amid those touchdown celebrations were three sacks from Ware.
Now, you’d think that in a career where he notched 138.5 sacks, it’d be hard to remember any specific trio of them, let alone one of them.
And yet, in that historic Sunday Night Football game, Ware did something that seemed almost impossible in theory — he faked a spin move and juked out one of the best tackles in pro football history, Joe Staley.
It was called one of the “craziest” plays in history and it’s easy to see why:
Do you remember that time @DeMarcusWare pulled a fake spin move and sacked Colin Kaepernick?
Ware talks about that and more on the Edge Rusher edition of the @MoveTheSticks Position Prototype Series!
PODCAST: https://t.co/YcuBhAROa3 pic.twitter.com/MK1MiBaIoY
— NFL Podcasts (@NFL_Podcasts) July 30, 2019
Ware, by virtue of an almost-unfathomable “fake spin” move, left one of the best tackles in football in the dust.
In fact, by the time Staley even appeared to realize what had happened to him, Ware already had a hand on Kaepernick and was on the verge of pulling him down for a sack.
You’ll notice the above tweet is from 2019, meaning that even nearly five years later, people are still in awe of Ware’s spin move and sack from that Sunday night.
That’s a testament to the kind of player Ware was, and the sort of career that he had.
Given the Kaepernick sack and the other 137.5 sacks on his resume, it’s pretty easy to see why Ware was a Hall of Fame selection.
Just don’t judge those credentials based on his singing ability.
