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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"

"Beat The Heat" Video

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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