Denver Broncos legend Demarcus Ware discusses Broncos Country, Sean Payton, Russell Wilson, and the Broncos' playoff chances.
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00:00 Good afternoon and welcome to Mile High Huddle.
00:04 We're going to be interviewing a Hall of Fame player,
00:09 a Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys legend,
00:14 among other things, Demarcus Ware.
00:17 Welcome.
00:18 Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me.
00:21 It's a great honor to have the privilege
00:23 to talk with you today.
00:24 Thank you.
00:25 - You know, I'm really glad that you invited me on
00:28 and it's so cool to be invited onto a show
00:31 where it says the Legends of Mile High podcast.
00:34 So that lets me know that I am a legend in Mile High
00:39 and man, that feels really good.
00:41 That feels good.
00:42 That feels really good.
00:43 - Yeah, you are a legend.
00:45 I mean, I could talk to you all day about, you know,
00:48 your playing days and all of that.
00:50 And I know we have a short amount of time here,
00:52 but you're definitely a legend in Denver Broncos.
00:55 You're definitely a legend with the Dallas Cowboys as well.
00:59 But before we dive in,
01:00 I know I'm going to want to talk a lot about Broncos.
01:02 So before we dive in,
01:03 there's an event that you're holding, a bowling classic.
01:06 Can you tell the listeners a little bit about that?
01:09 - So I'm hosting a bowling classic, right?
01:11 You know, I'm probably the biggest competitor
01:13 that you probably will ever see.
01:15 You know, Super Bowl 50,
01:17 just going to throw that out there.
01:18 But, you know, I'm hosting a bowling classic
01:21 and it's sponsored by Pepsi
01:23 and it's on February the 9th at noon local time in Vegas.
01:27 And I'm just telling all the fans to come out
01:31 and meet some of the former players,
01:33 bowl against some of the former players,
01:35 but also some of the legends,
01:36 and also have an opportunity to raise money for Impact,
01:40 you know, for the NFL Foundation.
01:42 And they can sign up as soon as December the 19th,
01:46 this Tuesday.
01:47 It's going to be an amazing bowling event.
01:49 I feel like it's going to be the best in the land.
01:52 Not only are all the Broncos fans are going to be there,
01:54 but we're going to be in Vegas
01:56 and we're going to have a good time.
01:57 So I'm just persuading people to go to
02:00 pepsibowlingclassic.com,
02:02 again, pepsibowlingclassic.com,
02:05 to go and sign up.
02:06 And let's win this thing one more time
02:09 for Super Bowl 50.
02:10 (laughs)
02:12 - I tell you, it sounds fun.
02:13 I'm a terrible bowler, but I'd love to do it anyway.
02:15 But pepsibowlingclassic.com,
02:17 you can sign up next Tuesday.
02:19 And yeah, that sounds like a blast,
02:21 especially in Vegas.
02:22 I mean, bowling in Vegas sounds fun.
02:23 I'm a big Vegas fan.
02:25 What do you make of this turnaround that the Broncos have?
02:29 I mean, it could go down as one of the greatest
02:31 turnarounds in NFL history, really,
02:34 from one and five, they make the playoffs.
02:37 What do you make of it?
02:39 - It's what we've been waiting for.
02:41 It's what Broncos country has been needing
02:45 after Super Bowl 50.
02:46 Everything has just been up and down.
02:48 I mean, I'm the biggest fan ever.
02:50 I mean, I tailgate, I do all those things.
02:52 I watch every single game, know every single player.
02:56 But when you see a new coach come in,
02:58 you have general manager changes,
03:00 people think that, oh my God, I mean,
03:02 how long is it gonna take for us
03:03 to really get that team back?
03:06 And now you see in the last three or four games,
03:09 with all those changes, everything is coming together.
03:12 And it's one of the coolest things to see
03:15 because we still have an opportunity.
03:18 They did it early enough to where we have opportunity
03:20 probably get into the playoffs some type of way.
03:23 Yeah, it didn't start off like we wanted it to,
03:26 but teams peak as it gets closer to the postseason,
03:30 just what the Denver Broncos is doing right now.
03:32 So hopefully we keep doing this
03:35 and it's been a phenomenal change and it's been amazing.
03:39 - Yeah, it's fun for Broncos fans, finally.
03:42 I mean, it's finally been fun to be relevant
03:45 in December right now.
03:47 So I'm enjoying it as well.
03:49 But as a player in a locker room,
03:52 as you've been for a long time,
03:55 what do you have to do to mentally or whatever
04:00 to make that kind of turnaround
04:01 when you're facing all that adversity,
04:03 one in five or whatever it may be?
04:06 What are some of the things that players can do
04:09 or what's the overall kind of theme that happens
04:12 to get that moving in a different direction?
04:15 - What happens is the leaders start becoming better leaders
04:19 in communicating with the team
04:22 because there's usually one guy on defense,
04:24 one guy on offense,
04:25 and everybody leans on them to say, what do we need to do?
04:29 And finally, those guys are stepping up to the plate,
04:32 one of them being Russell Wilson,
04:34 also the head coach Sean Payton.
04:35 Everybody has bought into, we call it the sauce.
04:40 Have you bought into the sauce yet?
04:42 And they have done that.
04:44 And that theme is you create that model
04:48 at the beginning of the season, do you believe it?
04:51 And through all the good and bad times, can we play well?
04:56 And that's what we're starting to see
04:57 and everybody's bought into it.
04:59 And now I know that since everybody has done that,
05:02 you got the team, you have the nucleus.
05:05 Now they just gotta go out and play
05:07 like they've been playing the last four games
05:09 and see what happens.
05:11 - And speaking of believing,
05:13 do you think that as they,
05:15 even though some of those wins that they've had,
05:17 this five game winning streets, six of the last seven,
05:20 they had a couple of close ones,
05:22 the 12th man kind of lucky win there.
05:25 But do you believe that,
05:27 or do you think that they,
05:28 as they start to stack up these wins,
05:29 that that belief that they can win all the time grows
05:33 and that momentum,
05:35 do you believe in the momentum
05:36 that people talk about all the time,
05:38 but some say it doesn't exist?
05:40 Do you think that that really happens?
05:42 - Momentum is huge.
05:43 And one thing that you said was the 12th man.
05:46 The Denver Broncos fans,
05:48 they are the most trustworthy.
05:52 They come to every single game.
05:53 If you're home or away,
05:55 it doesn't matter if it's 12 degrees outside,
05:57 they are there supporting their team.
06:00 So that 12th man is there.
06:02 Now the momentum comes when now the Ls
06:05 start becoming Ws.
06:07 That's what's happened.
06:09 And now everybody is on that gravy train.
06:13 The only way you keep that gravy train coming
06:15 is you gotta have the 12th man
06:17 and that momentum that's gonna be pushing you
06:19 to where you need to go.
06:20 Yeah, you'll have wins and losses throughout that,
06:24 but you gotta keep that fire hot.
06:26 And if they can do that,
06:28 man, I'm just excited.
06:30 Like you said, six out of seven games
06:32 and four to six games or whatever that you just said,
06:35 I just wanna see them keep winning
06:38 so they keep saying Denver Broncos.
06:41 Oh my God, did you see what the Denver Broncos
06:42 just did this week?
06:44 And now let them start saying the Denver Broncos
06:47 in the postseason and let them make a playoff.
06:50 Playoff games are one and one.
06:52 That's it, 50-50.
06:53 So if you win those and just keep stacking them up,
06:56 you never know what can happen.
06:59 - And speaking of the playoffs,
07:01 are you on board?
07:02 You think this team is going to the playoffs?
07:04 And do you think that they'll make
07:06 a deep run in the playoffs?
07:09 It was unfathomable six, seven weeks ago.
07:11 - They can make it to the playoffs.
07:15 I don't know how deep in the playoffs.
07:18 The reason why I say that,
07:19 because as you get deeper in the playoffs,
07:21 that's when depth come into play.
07:25 Do they have enough depth at certain positions
07:29 to keep their energy levels high enough
07:34 to win those big games?
07:36 Right now we're seeing that,
07:38 but they're not winning them, to me,
07:41 you can't win them by one point.
07:43 I just need to go big teams.
07:46 So now we have that confidence where,
07:47 yeah, we just scored 14, we win them by 14,
07:49 we win them by 21, we just won by 35 points.
07:53 We put the pedal to the metal.
07:54 When you start seeing those games,
07:56 that's when you get deeper in the playoffs.
07:57 The way that they're playing right now,
08:00 they can get into the playoffs,
08:01 but I just don't know how far they're gonna go.
08:03 - Yeah, and health plays a lot into that.
08:05 They're very healthy.
08:06 For the first time in a long time that we've seen that.
08:10 So as you see these other teams start to lose players,
08:13 I know it's terrible to see that happen,
08:16 but as the Broncos stay healthy, how important is that?
08:20 - Having a full team is usually the most important thing
08:26 when you're going into the playoffs,
08:27 because usually your left tackle gets hurt,
08:30 your quarterback, your inside linebacker,
08:33 somebody that's, but I need him to be that piece
08:37 to get me through the Super Bowl.
08:39 And the Denver Broncos have all of that,
08:42 because they've been playing so battle-hardened
08:45 that they can work through anything right now,
08:48 and their players are solid.
08:51 They're ready for it.
08:52 Now, mentally, they just gotta say, we can do this.
08:56 We actually can do this.
08:57 Let's erase all the seasons that came before us,
09:01 and let's just worry about these first 24 hours that we have,
09:04 and how can we win this game this week?
09:07 - I'm excited for it.
09:08 You're getting me excited.
09:09 You're getting me excited to go bowling even, so I'm ready.
09:13 I know you gotta get going here pretty quick.
09:15 I have one last question for you.
09:17 It's not really necessarily football-related,
09:19 but you won a Super Bowl, made it to the Hall of Fame,
09:23 I mean, two greatest honors
09:24 I think football players can have, but what's next?
09:29 What are you striving for next for the future?
09:32 You thinking about front office, coaching,
09:33 anything related to football,
09:35 or completely out of football, going bowling?
09:38 - I think everything totally outside of football.
09:43 Football has given me the platform to create impact,
09:46 and so that's why I do these things
09:48 like this Bowling Classic with Pepsi,
09:50 because I know that once everybody signs up,
09:53 when they go to pepsibowlingclassic.com,
09:56 that money is gonna be used for something
09:59 that's gonna help the community.
10:00 And usually people get me involved
10:04 because I will bring the party.
10:06 We're gonna have a good time,
10:07 but we're also gonna create impact.
10:10 And that's the coolest things
10:12 when you're working with companies,
10:13 that that's what they do.
10:15 And being part of this is just amazing.
10:18 So that's what I enjoy doing, is serving,
10:21 meeting the fans, getting back with the Broncos fans
10:24 and all the other fans that are gonna be there,
10:26 and enjoying ourselves,
10:27 but also knowing that we're doing something really good
10:30 that's gonna change lives.
10:32 - That's wonderful.
10:33 Yeah, it's the pepsibowlingclassic, pepsibowlingclassic.com.
10:37 Don't forget to go sign up next Tuesday, correct?
10:40 It'll open up to sign up.
10:42 It sounds like a blast.
10:43 I hope I can make it.
10:45 Again, this is Demarcus Ware.
10:47 If you don't know who he is, I don't know how you couldn't.
10:50 Pro Football Hall of Famer,
10:51 one of the greatest pass rushers of all time.
10:54 Thank you so much for joining the show
10:57 and letting me ask you the questions and chat with me.
11:00 So thank you so much.
11:01 - And as TD says, here's a mile high silhouette.