the course of the 2008 season.
Ware wasn't done, though. He also was scheduled for an appearance on Sirius Radio's Opening Drive, and of course faced the same line of questioning. Ware was consistent.
"You know, on the concept of hydration, I think I was probably going off the field maybe to get hydrated," he says laughing, knowing he eloquently skirted the subject. "But I think that everybody at the end of the day got ample amount of time and I went back and looked at a lot of the things, and I, what, played in like 95 percent of the plays?
"And, you know, maybe sometimes guys rush better against certain guys, so I don't know. I don't know what the deal is, but at the end of the day, I did what I can do to help the team out last year."
So face it, if Ware was playing 95 percent of the plays, he sure is lousy at hiding. Hope wife Taniqua is in charge of teaching the kids how to hide.
And worse, she better be in charge of the math lessons, too. I know for a fact Ware participated in 97-point-something percent of the plays, and if we're rounding out to the closest whole number, that then becomes 98 percent of the plays. Think about that now, Ware only sat out two percent of the 969 plays. That comes to 19.38 plays missed . . . FOR THE ENTIRE SEASON. Divide that over 16 games, and that comes to sitting out an average of 1.2 plays a game.
Even more enlightening would be factoring in the Seattle game. That hyper-extended knee caused him to miss 13 plays in the fourth quarter, or right at 67 percent of all the plays he missed last year. Furthermore, that means in the other 15 games when he supposedly was trying to hide, Ware only missed like six plays - like less than a half-play a game.
Also know this because his seat usually was right behind mine coming back on those charter flights from away games: Ware was slam worn out when slumping into his seat each time. Got to be a running joke when I would ask him how many plays he sat out in the game, and his eyes would widen, saying, "Nonnnne!" That was his answer more times than "one" would be.
Hey, that's about right, though, when you are recording a franchise-record 20 sacks, recording 20 hurries and forcing seven fumbles in one season.
So, you know, take what Greg's saying with a grain of sea-salt. He's probably not being malicious, and I'm told what he said about the "hiding" part was a very short portion of some long ramblings. He might have even thought he was being funny, who knows.
Or maybe he's right. Maybe Ware did try to hide.
But obviously he wasn't any good at it.
