He and Taniqua say they have two angels  one they hold each day, and one they can feel but never see or touch. A poem, “Angel in the Sky,” sits on the mantle in the living room. It refers to Omar Ware, who was stillborn in 2006 and cremated the same day. The Wares placed his ashes in a gold urn next to the poem.

Early in the second game he played after Omar’s death, Ware sacked Redskins quarterback Mark Brunell. Instead of dancing, Ware fell backward, powerless, arms spread wide, he said. At that instant, he added, he felt the tension release from his body, as if pushed out by the deafening roar of the home crowd. A friend called Taniqua, saying Ware had looked like an angel falling toward the turf.

Ever since, Ware said: “I feel Omar out there with me, watching over me and protecting me. Sometimes, when I’m tired on the field, and I feel like I can’t go anymore, I just think, what if he had one more breath? What if all three did?”

The Wares always wanted a large family, boys and girls, maybe twins. They met in high school in Auburn, Ala., where Taniqua worked at a deli and sneaked sandwiches and cookies to him.

“Food was the way to his heart,” she said. “And those dimples were every girl’s dream.”

Ware played football, basketball and baseball. Taniqua fought fierce competition to become his Diamond Doll so she could hand him sugar cookies, Snickers and blue Gatorade before each baseball game.