Cowboys legend DeMarcus Ware says Eagles fan injured his mother amid controversy over fan cursing at woman

Philadelphia Eagles fans are under the national microscope after one of their own, Ryan Caldwellwas seen verbally attacking a Green Bay Packers cheerleader in viral footage at a playoff game last Sunday.

But the history of the fan base abuse of women on the opposite side it dates back much further than that.

Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker DeMarcus Ware, who played in a game in Philadelphia every year during his career in Dallas from 2005 to 2013, told Fox News Digital that he once had to witness Eagles fans throw dangerous missiles at his mother, Brenda Ann Ware, during a game his rookie year in 2005.

“My first season when my mom was in the stands, I told her not to wear my jersey, and she was in the front row, and they were up there in Philly, putting batteries in snowballs and throwing them and one of they were hit by my mom,” Ware said.

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Seeing his mother pinned to a snow-covered battery almost made Ware abandon his football duties and run into the stands to start a fight.

“I turned around at that time and I didn’t care about football anymore. I wanted to go get the guy that was in the stands. But I didn’t,” Ware said.

The linebacker held back, allowing team security to attend to the fan who injured his mother. But he has let the memory of the incident fester in his mind and motivates him every time he takes the field against the Eagles.

The Cowboys beat the Eagles 21-20 in that 2005 game in Philadelphia to sweep the season series.

In 17 career games against the Eagles, Ware totaled 16 sacks. The Cowboys went 9-8 against their opponents in the games Ware played.

Ware had his most sacrificial performance against the Eagles in 2011. In January of that year, he had three sacks in Philadelphia in the 2010 season finale to seal a 14-13 victory. The following season, in an October game in Philadelphia, he had four sacks, the most ever in a game against a major rival. He had two more sacks in the second game against the Eagles that year in Dallas in December.

But despite nearly a decade of animosity toward Eagle fans for what they did to his mother, he still respects the will of the fan base. The franchise’s former home, Veterans Stadium, had a courthouse and jail cells to deal with law-breaking fans, something Ware doesn’t take lightly.

“Philadelphia Eagles fans, they are very, very strong fans,” he said.

“When you have jail at the bottom of the stadium in those days, when you can go to jail for being rude, even from the point every time we played, it was a rivalry game if it was up there or at home, and their fans, they they travel well, they’re just persistent, and that’s who they are.”

Caldwell’s recent viral video reignited certain stereotypes among fans as the team battles for a Super Bowl this season.

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The video shows Caldwell calling nearby Packers fans vulgar and sexist names, while making explicit gestures to mock the man who followed her.

Caldwell, meanwhile, was fired from his job as a project manager at NJ-based BCT Partners. He apologized but also defended himself, insisting that his actions “were not without provocation” and that the viral video “doesn’t show the full context” of what happened.

Still, Caldwell’s abusive behavior is just the latest in a long history of rampant and sometimes illegal behavior by the fan base over the years.

In 1997, during a Monday night game against the San Francisco 49ers, a mischievous Eagles fan fired a flare into the stands full of other fans, endangering multiple lives.

After the flare was fired, more fistfights broke out around the stadium as Eagles fans directed most of the violence towards 49ers fans.

“There was a lot of fighting and intimidation, many of which were directed at fans wearing 49ers jerseys,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote at the time.

After the game, Eagles owner Jeffrie Lurie was forced to denounce his own fans.

“Despite the fact that we feel we’ve made significant progress over the last few years in terms of fan behavior at Veterans Stadium, what we witnessed last Monday was undoubtedly a step backwards,” Lurie told reporters at the time.

In 2018, an Eagles fan was arrested during an NFC divisional playoff game against the Falcons for hitting a Philadelphia police officer’s horse.

According to a police report at the time, the man was ejected for “being intoxicated and not in possession of a ticket.” After being ejected from Lincoln Stadium, the man walked toward the policeman on horseback and “started hitting the horse in the face, neck and shoulders.”

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After the Eagles won the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots that year, many violent riots broke out in the city. Looting and vandalism was reported at multiple stores and a local Macy’s department store. Cars overturned, traffic lights and light poles were toppled, and there were even unconfirmed reports of explosions.

One of the most famous examples of unbridled behavior by Eagles fans happened back in 1968, when a man dressed as Santa took the field. He was booed mercilessly by fans upset about a disappointing season and, like Ware’s mother, even pelted with snowballs.

But it wasn’t just snowballs, he was also pelted with beer cans and even sandwiches.

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