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The story of a man's rise in this life of ours is not necessarily judged by how high he eventually advances, but instead by how far he's come.
Take DeMarcus Ware, the Dallas Cowboys' 2005 11th pick in the first round of the NFL Draft out of little Troy University, who was so shy and so reserved when he first showed up at The Ranch he initially didn't bother to mention to anyone the preferential spelling of his first name was DeMarcus, not Demarcus.
That really is the story needing to be told in the aftermath of the Cowboys signing their three-time Pro Bowl outside linebacker to a six-year contract extension worth $78 million, which includes a $20 million signing bonus, a $5 million base salary raise for this season ($6.1 million) and most importantly, at least to Ware and his family, $40 million in guaranteed money.
This means if Ware completes this contract in 2015, at the tender age of 33, he'll have played 11 seasons in the NFL for the Cowboys and probably will want for very little the rest of his life.
That sobering fact was not lost on Ware nor Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the man responsible for shaking hands on this deal with his star defensive player just hours before the Cowboys went out a week ago Sunday to dismantle the erstwhile 4-1 Atlanta Falcons, 37-21, at Cowboys Stadium.
"He's the cornerstone player of this franchise," Jones would say on that late Monday afternoon while announcing the deal, which always was about when it would be signed not if since Ware was in the final year of his initial five-year contract. "And he will be for a long time to come."
And when hearing Ware speak during the news conference, there never was a doubt that this is the kind of player-kind of person-worth taking a chance with such riches at just 27 years of age.
"With me, it's about getting what you deserve," Ware said of the amount, less than what a quarterback is paid but as much, if not more than any other defensive player. "And I feel like I've gotten what I deserved in my situation because you can't sort of ask for too much money when you need other players to build. And you can't build with just one guy. It's all about team, so you've got to bring guys in here and you can't ask for just too much money because they need to work, too. And it's all about really just being a team player."
Your kind of guy, right?
Well, listen to this story Ware tells about himself later that night of the signing on the weekly "All-Pro Show" heard locally on 103.3 ESPN Radio (and can been seen on Time Warner Cable) when host Wally Lynn just happened to ask his guest if he remembered the first job he ever had-like a real job, not simply as a kid growing up in Auburn, Ala., selling soft drinks at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
He was in college at the time, on scholarship mind you, going to school, playing football and working for a guy cutting grass on his three-acre farm there in Troy, Ala. Ware thought, what a deal when first presented with the job, sit on a riding mower and get paid for cutting three acres of grass.
Well, not quite.
"He actually had a push lawn mover," Ware said. "So I pushed that (spread), was mad, but went through that."
And so the guy, knowing the young kid's frustration pushing through three acres of grass, made him a much more lucrative offer
Ware thought.
"He said, 'You know, have you ever picked eggs before? I'll give you 25 cents an egg,'" Ware remembers. "And I said to myself, 'that's a lot of money.' So I walked over there and there were hundreds of chickens. He opens up the chicken coup and there was probably 100 yards (long) of chickens everywhere.
"I said, 'How do you get all the way to the back?' He said, 'You have to walk all the way to the back but you've got to put these boots on.' I said, 'OK.'
"So you're walking through chicken stuff alllll the way down there; they actually move out of the way. Then you've got to pick them up to get their eggs, and they'll peck you, too. So the chickens are runnin' around everywhere, but the ones laying eggs are actually on these little bins and they are sitting on the pile of eggs. So you got to stick your hand down in there, and it's warm, too. And you got to pick the egg out pretty fast, or they'll peck you, too, and then you wash them off and put them in another little bin."
You're kidding right? You did that? Seriously?
"No, that's what I did," Ware said a couple of days later when asked about the story. "My job in college."
Now for those who might not know, these hen houses in the South, as politely as can be written, stink to the high heavens, and that at a quarter-mile away just driving by. Can you image how badly they must smell when actually right in there with all those hens and eggs and, uh, (stuff) in that heat and humidity of Alabama?
"Stink, oh man," Ware said.
So, his day consisted of going to school, going to the chicken farm and then going to football practice. And needless to say, just like anyone who knows anything about working in a doughnut shop or a pizza parlor, you leave smelling just like your working environment.
"That's right, and I'd show up for practice and first have to take a shower," Ware said. "Stunk so bad."
Hey, a guy's got to make a buck.
"So it's not where you started," Ware said with a wide grin, "it's where you finish."
True enough, but the beauty of all this, not only for Ware but for the Cowboys who after two consecutive home games are heading back on the road this Sunday to Philadelphia, is Ware isn't near finished. Not by a long shot. The story is only half told so far.
And that Ware has earned three Pro Bowl awards, nearly won the NFL Defensive Player of the Year award in 2008 while setting the Cowboys' single-season sack record at 20, and has been named to the NFL's All-Pro team three times is only part of the reason the Cowboys made such an investment on the heels of opening a $1.2 billion stadium this year in Arlington, Texas.
The other part is that Jerry Jones and executive vice-president Stephen Jones know what kind of person Ware is. They trust him not to immediately become complacent; you know, take the money and run. That always has to be a big part of their decision when re-signing their own players or free agents to lucrative long-term deals. With what kind of character are they dealing?
Because as Jones knows, "Guys will have their best years in the last years of their contract." Paranoia of the unknown always has been a great motivator.
But nothing in Ware's past suggests he is that kind of guy, especially if you consider on the day he shook hands with Jones on the deal he went out to collect two sacks in that victory over Atlanta, pushing this year's total to four after six games with teams swearing off allowing him to single-handedly destroy their offensive operation.
"It is something special that he's the type of person that if you're to spend the time that we all spend and energy that we spend with the Cowboys, this is who you want to hang out with and who you want to be around," Jerry Jones said.
And no doubt, he's the type of person you want pursuing opposing quarterbacks, either from his outside linebacker spot in the team's 3-4 standard defense or with his hand on the ground as a defensive end on the Cowboys' four-man front of their Nickel defense.
Just think, only six games into his fifth NFL season Ware already had 57½ sacks, the most by an NFL linebacker since Ware entered the league in 2005, and 11 more than the next guy, Aaron Kampman. And not to mention 18 more than San Diego's Shawne Merriman, who some insisted at the time the Cowboys should have selected with the 11th pick once San Diego took him at No. 12 that year.
But so far it looks as if the Cowboys knew exactly what they were doing, combining talent and character by selecting Ware. His 20-sack season in 2008 matched the sixth best single-season total (Derrick Thomas) since the NFL began officially tracking sacks in 1982. And to think he was just 2½ sacks off Michael Strahan's all-time record.
"I've been lucky to be around a lot of good ones," said Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips, the long-time NFL defensive coordinator who considers himself somewhat of a sack aficionado since he has coached so many of the great ones, including Hall of Famers Reggie White and Bruce Smith. "He's at the top of the class, and it doesn't take long to call the roll. You know that statement. He's very special that way."
In just more than four years around The Ranch, Ware has proven to be "very special" in a lot of ways, and not just on the football field. He tirelessly makes charitable appearances. He has been good with the media. And slowly but surely he has crawled out of that somewhat shy shell he showed up in, beginning to step up as a team leader in the locker room.
But no matter the money-and that's a lot of money, for sure-Ware is so grounded, he never loses track of his roots, from where he once came.
"I think about it every day, yeah, it's weird. I think about it every day-my family, how you got to where you are, some of the sacrifices you made to get to where you are," Ware said. "And now, 'Are you still doing the same thing?' I always ask myself, 'Are you doing the same things that got you to where you are?' And I always say, 'Yes.'"
Yet he's not quite done with his self-interrogation.
"But now it's 'what can you change to improve?'" Ware says he asks, and he says he does so "every day. Every day ... every day."
Of course he does, and here's betting he collected those stinkin' eggs back then with the same intensity he's collecting these sacks today, only difference being the sacks pay just a little bit better.
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Mickey Spagnola - 
