The 2022 Pro Football Hall of Fame class has been announced, and DeMarcus Ware is not part of it.
Former Denver Broncos defensive end DeMarcus Ware had a chance to be a first-ballot election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and with a lack of a superstar inductee around this year, many thought he would easily get it. But that was not to be.
During Thursday night’s NFL Honors awards show, the latest group of inductees into Canton’s Pro Football Hall of Fame was announced, and it read as follows:
Tony Boselli, Cliff Branch, Bryant Young, Sam Mills, Dick Vermeil, Art McNally, LeRoy Butler, and Richard Seymour.
You could make the argument that Ware should be in ahead of every one of those players.
DeMarcus Ware sits at No. 9 on NFL’s all-time sacks list
Only eight players who have ever played in the NFL have more sacks than Ware on the official list and six of those guys are already in the Hall of Fame. The other two, Terrell Suggs and Julius Peppers, are not yet eligible.
It took many years for the Broncos to have a player reach the Hall of Fame. John Elway finally did it in 2004. But in recent years, the team has seen many more including Terrell Davis, Brian Dawkins, Pat Bowlen, Champ Bailey, Steve Atwater, John Lynch, and Peyton Manning.
Each year since 2017, the Broncos have seen at least one player from their past be inducted, but that streak will come to an end with Ware’s exclusion.
Being a HOF voter sounds hard as hell, so I’m certainly not trying to trash talk them. Tough job.
— David Helman (@davidhelman_) February 11, 2022
Still, I’m pretty shocked DeMarcus Ware will have to wait. I thought he had a first ballot type of resume.
It’s a matter of when, not if, though. So at least there’s that.
The Broncos signed Ware during the offseason following the 2013 campaign in which he was made a cap casualty by the Dallas Cowboys, where he had spent nine seasons. The Broncos swooped in the next day.
Ware would spend the next three seasons in Denver, becoming a key piece on a dominant defense that helped win Super Bowl 50.
In 37 games with the Broncos, Ware posted 21.5 sacks, one interception, three forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery.
But for his career, he had 138.5 sacks, which is more than Richard Dent, Lawrence Taylor, John Randle, Rickey Jackson, and Derrick Thomas, all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.
When you look at who did get in this year, both Young and Seymour were defensive linemen and while they both had terrific, respectable careers neither have the numbers nor made the kind of impact on a game that Ware did.
Ware will now have to wait until next year to see if he gets the call, but this certainly has to be seen as a big snub, even if it is rare to get in on the first ballot.