Former Cowboys DE Greg Ellis feels blessed to begin his NFL coaching career at home

Last Sunday, Greg Ellis fulfilled his duties as a deacon at St. John Baptist Church in Southlake.

At the end of service, he asked Senior Pastor Denny Dennis for prayers as he prepared to head to training camp in Oxnard, Calif., with the Dallas Cowboys for first time since 1998.

Twenty-four years ago, it was as a player, a hulking 6-foot-8 defensive end who overcame the ignominy of being the player the Cowboys chose, passing on Hall of Fame wide receiver Randy Mosst. They selected Ellis,who became a respected and revered professional who played was true to his craft during a solid 12-year career in the NFL.

He was a Pro Bowler and the 2007 NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

Now, it will be as the assistant defensive line coach with the focus on tutoring the defensive ends, most notably three-time All-Pro and budding superstar Micah Parsons.

He won’t be in church this Sunday nor for the foreseeable for future as he embarks in a new career, a dream come true and a blessing from above as Ellis gets to realize it all at home.

“I asked the pastor pray. I wanted that because I’m a spiritual guy and I believe in the power of prayer,” Ellis said. “So I asked him for his prayer and blessings over me, the Cowboys and everything involved with it. I wanted to let the church members know, me as a deacon, I’m not just laying home. I won’t be here for several Sundays until, prayerfully, hopefully, in February, where we in the big game. And so just understand I’m not a deacon that’s avoiding his duties, but I am a deacon who also is a coach for the Dallas Cowboys. And so I have to pay respect to that position.”

Ellis said he has always wanted to coach in the NFL. And it was former Cowboys coach Bill Parcells who told him he had the ability to coach.

But he resisted following his career out of deference to his family. He didn’t want to embark on the gypsy life of a coach while his kids were young.

So he made a life in Dallas as an entrepreneur, who produced plays and films, and created content. He said he did things to help people.

It’s something that he is continuing to do. In May, Ellis teamed up with the City of Dallas to support mental health awareness, especially in communities of color with a free wellness summit in conjunction with his nonprofit organization Getting My Help.

He also took small college head coaching jobs as at Texas College in Tyler and Southwestern Assemblies of God University, an NAIA school with about 2,000 students in the town of Waxahachie, 30 miles south of Dallas.

It all set him up for the blessing at hand.

With his kids almost grown — his youngest daughter is a 15 rising sophomore at Coppell High School — Ellis was looking at other NFL opportunities.

When Mike Zimmer, his former defensive coordinator with the Cowboys, was rehired as the Cowboys defensive coordinator, he called Ellis about this opportunity.

“That’s a blessing in itself, because it was a it’s really being picture perfect,” Ellis said. “It’s a blessing for me because it’s like everything lined up. I had the opportunity to coach at those small colleges, and even though they were small colleges, but it still taught me how to coach, putting together game plans, standing in front of the room, addressing the whole team, addressing people, putting the plays out, the schemes and techniques and all those things, and making sure that they we implemented them as coaches.

So all those things, I did at a smaller level that allowed me to still stay here in Texas to do it. And now to be able to do it for the team that I played for for 11 years and for a coach that I spent most of those 11 years playing under it couldn’t get any better than that.”

Ellis is with the Cowboys with full blessing of his wife and family.

He gets to live his dream in Dallas and still help out around the house.

Ellis is excited to be back with the Cowboys and stoked about the opportunity to work with a superstar like Parsons, who finished in the top three in NFL Defensive Player of the Year balloting in each of the last three seasons.

Parsons is the fifth NFL player since 1982 with at least 40.0 career sacks in his first three NFL seasons, joining Reggie White (52.0), Derrick Thomas (43.5), Aldon Smith (42.0) and Dwight Freeney (40.0).

His focus is trying sharping his technique, punch or footwork to be even better.

“That’s a challenge for me,” Ellis said. “I’ve done a lot of studying and thinking about what can I help him with? He’s such a tremendous, talented guy. I look at things and I listen to him too because you got to pay respect to him because he does have a lot of athletic ability. And what has he done thus far that is allowing him to be successful. So Greg study what he has done. Now, what can you help him with to help him do even more and be even better. And that’s my approach. I don’t try to take him and change him.”

Ellis said his approach will be the same for all the pass rushers from veteran DeMarcus Lawrence to rookie Marshawn Kneeland.

It’s ironic that Ellis is back with the Cowboys because the Super Bowl drought that has weighed down franchise ctually began during his tenure with the franchise.

The Cowboys have not won a Super Bowl title since 1996. Ellis joined the franchise in 1998. He did not win a playoff game during his time with team, which ended in 1998. He played one final season in 2009 with the Las Vegas Raiders.

“It’s been a historical, great winning franchise. And people, people try to put me or think that I played on the Super Bowl teams because I played with Troy Aikman and Emmitt and all those guys that was winning Super Bowls. And I joke it off. I was like, ‘well they decided to stop winning when I got there. But yes I am a part of that. I was blessed to be there for 11 years, but no Super Bowl, not even a Super Bowl appearance, and so we all in that same boat.

“We still haven’t got the major goal to accomplish that, winning a Super Bowl. That’s in the back of your head. Obviously, everybody wants to win the Super Bowl, but all I can do, and it would advise anybody to do, is just take one day, one moment at a time, and making sure that you are crossing those T’s and dotting those I’s and do your job.”

Getting to the Super Bowl is the goal again 2024.

And with the majority of the team and the entire coach on one-year deals or in the last year of their contracts, one day at a time is the mantra for the entire organization.

No matter what happens, this is a new beginning for Ellis.

He is now an NFL coach and he plans to continue to live that dream whether its Dallas or somewhere else.

His prayer and that of the St. John coach is for a successful season and for him to stay home.

Ellis has already been blessed. Now he just needs a little bit of faith and fate.