By Robert Klemko | mmqb.si.com
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — After nine seasons, seven Pro Bowls, and 117 sacks, the Dallas Cowboys cut ties with DeMarcus Ware, in part, to save $16 million. Choosing to look forward to his new role in Denver, the defensive end has glossed over one inevitable question following his release. Here it comes again:
Did it hurt?
His answer is quiet, like Ware himself, and sincere. Not really, he says, but if it happened four years ago, it would have floored him.
“If I wasn’t in a business state of mind and I was thinking about my ego, I would ask, ‘Why?’ ” he says. “Before 2009 I would’ve been devastated, like, ‘What is going on? Why do they not want me here? What did I not do last season?’
“But in 2009 I had my career almost ended by a neck injury. I started thinking seriously about life after football. Now it’s like, I’ve had a fulfilled career, I know what I want, and it’s business. You have to move on knowing you created a lot of relationships you still have, and now this is another hurdle. Just jump and keep running as long as you can.”
That ‘business state of mind’ is what brought Ware to Notre Dame’s rain-soaked campus on a Thursday in April. The NFL’s Player Engagement program now offers a handful of entrepreneurial seminars on college campuses across the country each offseason for current and former players to conference with business professors and corporate mentors, all expenses paid.
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