Cowboys inducting DeMarcus Ware into Ring of Honor

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones announced Wednesday that newly-minted Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive end DeMarcus Ware will be the next inductee into the team’s Ring of Honor.

Jones made the announcement at Ford Center during the Cowboys’ Season Kickoff event. Ware will become the 23rd member of the Ring of Honor and first to be inducted since Darren Woodson in 2015.

The Cowboys are inducting Hall of Fame pass rusher DeMarcus Ware into the team’s Ring of Honor this year. Jerry Jones made the announcement at the Cowboys’ Season Kickoff event. Ware is the franchise’s all-time leader in sacks with a career that spanned 2005-13. pic.twitter.com/URBOXlU7ez

— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) August 23, 2023

“You guys understand how seriously I take this Ring of Honor,” Jones said, via the team’s website. “It’s not cavalier thing for me, at all. I recognize the fact it’s a committee of one that makes this happen. As a player, for him to have distinguished himself, I’d like to think when you go into the Ring of Honor, that’s not where it stops for the Dallas Cowboys organization. It goes forward for there. He’s absolutely what I had in mind when I talk about the Ring of Honor.”

Ware, the Cowboys’ 11th overall selection in the 2005 NFL Draft out of Troy, spent nine seasons in Dallas, becoming the franchise’s all-time leader in sacks with 117.0. He recorded a career-high 20.0 sacks in 2008 and another 19.5-sack season in 2011.

Ware, the host of Wednesday’s event, said he was caught off guard by Jones’ annoucement.

“This is the second time he’s surprised me,” Ware said. “The first time when you told me I was going into the [Pro Football] Hall of Fame. And secondly, for me getting into your Hall of Fame. That means so much to me. Yes, Canton was great, but this is my home and my dad [Jones] that I played for. I did enough.”

DeMarcus Ware takes place in Cowboys Ring of Honor, Jimmy Johnson’s wait continues

While Ware takes his place among the Cowboys’ greats, another Pro Football Hall of Famer, Jimmy Johnson, will have to continue waiting. Johnson won in Dallas. A lot, actually, taking a 1-15 team his first year in charge and making them the standard of the NFL just three years later, winning back-to-back Super Bowls in 1993 and ’94. And yet, Jones doesn’t seem set on making him the 24th member of the Ring of Honor anytime soon.

“This is DeMarcus’ time. He’s a player,” Jones said. “Jimmy is not. I wanted to put a player in.”