Will Kurt Warner Be Remembered as One of “The Greats”?

When you consider the great “rags to riches” quarterbacks in the league, you often think about Tom Brady or Tony Romo, but there’s no greater story that paints perseverance like Kurt Warner’s. NFL commentators will always, quickly tell us about the injury replacement player that was taking insurance calls just a week before suiting up in a game, but hardly ever does that player last as more than an afterthought in a game. Rarely does that player go on to have a 12 year career embroidered by championships, individual awards and personal triumph. Yet despite all odds, there stands Kurt Warner.

For more than a decade we’ve been bogged down with Kurt Warner’s pre-football career as a grocery store stock boy. He toiled for years to be noticed by NFL coaches though scouts gleamed at his potential. Between 1994 and 1998, Warner was nothing more than an Arena Football League standout and an NFL Europe star. Despite putting up big numbers, no team was really willing to give him a chance as a backup, let alone as a starter.

By 1999, and at the age of 29, Warner was finally given his big break in a lifetime completely devoid of them. When I use the word “break”, I mean it literally, of course. Trent Green was the starting quarterback of the St. Louis Rams but tore his ACL during preseason paving the way for Warner who was listed as the next passer on the depth chart. The Rams were a competitive football team that boasted Marshall Faulk, Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce but Warner was an x-factor. The man controlling the offense was literally an unknown figure in the NFL ranks and nobody knew what he was capable of. This included the fans of St. Louis, opposing defensive coordinators and Dick Vermeil, then the head coach of the Rams.


They should’ve done their homework.

Warner seized the reigns and never looked back finishing the 1999 season with 4,353 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and just 13 interceptions. Clawing out of obscurity and in to the spotlight, Warner wasn’t going to let anyone second guess his talent anymore. The Rams went on to win Super Bowl XXXIV as underdogs against the Tennessee Titans, winning a Super Bowl MVP award for his troubles. He went from unknown to unbelievable. From backup to brilliant. Indeed he went from being a nobody to being a champion, and The Greatest Show on Turf was born.

One memorable season doesn’t make a hall of famer, and Warner still had a ways to go before being mentioned in the same sentence as guys like Joe Montana or Jon Elway. After a dismal season in 2000, the Rams stood behind Kurt Warner trading Trent Green to the Chiefs and overhauling a defense that dragged a staggering offense to playoff hell. The Rams would lose to the New Orleans Saints in the wild card.

In 2001, Warner and the Rams returned to championship form as Warner put together another MVP winning season. His 4,830 yards was the third highest output of any quarterback ever besides Dan Marino, and later Drew Brees. He once again led the league in touchdowns with 36. Taking his team to the Super Bowl, Warner and the Rams fell as fourteen point favorites to another upstart and relative unknown – the New England Patriots and Tom Brady.

Following the loss in the Super Bowl, Warner would break his finger and begin what many assumed would be his final, downward spiral. Between 2002-2003 Warner would play in just 9 games in two seasons, throwing 12 picks and just 4 touchdowns. His poor play allowed Marc Bulger to claim the starting role, and Warner was never able to wrestle it back. At the end of 2003, Warner was cut by the St. Louis Rams.
Deflated and defeated, Warner would hold a clip board during the 2004 season as a member of the New York Giants and didn’t perform admirably enough to stave off the younger Manning from taking control under center just two games in to his rookie season. After just one year as a Giant, Warner would ask for his release and eventually sign to try and prove he had something left in Arizona. His MVP season of 1999 began to feel like a lifetime ago.
He had lost his job to young quarterbacks in the past. Marc Bulger became a two-time Pro Bowler. Eli Manning was a franchise guy the minute the Giants traded for him in the draft. Matt Leinart, who was coming out of USC as a heavenly regarded prospect looked like he was going to be the third young gun to surpass Kurt on the depth chart. It simply felt like Kurt was hanging around the game, collecting huge pay cheques while nobody had anymore faith in him. By the start of the 2007 season, Warner was 36 years old, a dinosaur by modern NFL standards.
Matt Leinart, however, turned out to be a bent nail allowing Warner to rise from a career that we all thought was dead. In 2007 Warner replaced a beleaguered Leinart and posted the best numbers of his career in five NFL seasons. With 3,417 yards and 27 touchdowns, Warner and the Cards finished 8-8 SU and just missed the playoffs.
Ken Wisenhunt arrived in Arizona in 2008 to rejuvenate the team and reinserted Warner as the head honcho under center. With renewed belief in his game, and a new coach to take full advantage of Warner’s talents, the Cardinals would finish 10-6 SU in the regular season and then demolish every shark who thought they were dead in the water during the 2008 playoffs. The Cardinals flew by the Falcons, preyed on Delhomme and the Panthers while clipping the Eagles before pushing the Pittsburgh Steelers to the envelope in Super Bowl XLIII. Kurt Warner, after years of toiling and frustration, had done what so many other aging quarterbacks had failed to do – he had returned to prominence.
The 2009 season began with the Cardinals and the betting detractors hoping that Warner wouldn’t succumb to the eternal clutches of Father Time, and Warner continued where he left off in 2008. Ending the season with an admirable 3,753 yards and 26 touchdowns Warner defied age must like his fellow elderly statesman, Brett Favre, and led the Cardinals to the divisional playoffs where they were bested by the Saints.
It’s amazing to me that I can write so much about a man’s career and yet it remains up for debate whether he’s deserving for the Hall of Fame. After all, this is a guy that went undrafted and unsigned by the NFL for five years after leaving college. This is also a guy who has been injured, or a backup, for half of his NFL career.

Still, can you negate these credentials: Super Bowl Champion, Super Bowl MVP, Associated Press NFL MVP (twice), Most Yards Passing in a Super Bowl (game and career), highest career playoff completion percentage (66.5%), Most Consecutive 300+ Passing Yards games (tied with Rich Gannon and Steve Young at 6), member of 300,000 passing yard club (fastest ascension since Dan Marino – 44 games each). Not in my opinion.
When we talk about “great quarterbacks” we measure numbers. How many rings do they have? How many yards did they get? How many touchdowns did they throw? How many MVP’s? What we fail to acknowledge in these debates is what makes a quarterback “great” largely because it’s an intangible element that we can’t attach to every single player.
Peyton Manning will be remembered for his staggering career numbers and his unearthly ability to dissect a gameplan and opposing defenses. Brett Favre will be renowned for his powerful arm, his uncanny leadership and his charisma. You’ll remember Steve Young for his leadership as much as you’ll remember Bart Starr’s resiliency and Warren Moon’s recklessness.
What allows Kurt Warner to stand in the Hall of Fame with those men, and what ultimately makes him great, is his ability to persevere against all odds. His career went to hell, rose to the heavens, fell from grace and then somehow rallied back in to the legends of NFL lore. We tell kids to “never give up on their dreams” and to “always believe in yourself”. For Kurt Warner, this is a lesson he never forgot and never relinquished well in to his thirties. Furthermore it’s a lesson that he never let us forget, and for that we should be thankful to him for a great career.

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