DeMarcus Ware Announces Retirement From NFL; Says "It's Time"

One of the leading line markers, DeMarcus Ware, announced his retirement from NFL on Monday. He declared the decision through a Twitter post and said that the quality of life and long-term health became apparent over passion and spark of the game. At 34, he completed 12 NFL seasons so far and is named as 8th in all time sacks.

"After a lot of prayers and thoughts, I made a decision to accept the unknown and to say goodbye to NFL career," Ware said. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone in my life who helped to mold my career; I would also thank for the opportunities given to me by both Cowboys and Broncos." Since he debuted in NFL in the year 2005, he continued to play for Dallas Cowboys, and in 2014, he moved to Denver Broncos and continued with the team until last week. He completed 138.5 career sacks in total during his 12 years career which is eighth best in the NFL history.

It's time .... pic.twitter.com/qlXpcNn12b

— D-Ware (@DeMarcusWare) March 13, 2017

When considering the players who completed at least 100 games in total, he stands third with 0.78 sacks per game only behind Reggie White's 0.85 and Taylor's 0.79. When he was drafted from Troy University in 2005, he was the first round pick-up and quickly grew to a defense general on the Cowboys side. He led the defense in 2015 for Broncos and helped the team to clinch the Super Bowl 50. The 2016 season was painful for him, as he couldn't repeat the performance of 2015 due to his injury.

Incidentally, his retirement has made a number of responses on Twitter, and other social media as both the Broncos and Cowboys bid adieu to their long-time defense coordinator. Jerry Jones, the owner of Cowboys, said that Ware was the kind of player he could ever want. "He was one of the most dominant players of his era, and one of the best players in the history of Cowboys," Jones said.