Kurt for Canton..?

Kurt Warner has announced his retirement from the NFL. After a late-starting career, Warner enjoyed superlative spells with two separate franchises, leading them to a combined three Super Bowls, winning it once with the Rams and nabbing MVP honours in the process. He is only the second man to throw 100 TD passes with two separate teams. He is the fastest man to reach 10,000 and 30,000 passing yards. He has been voted to the Pro Bowl 5 times and, in an up-and-down career spanning 12 seasons, Warner led his team to the Super Bowl in 3 of the 6 full seasons he played. In each of those Super Bowls he threw for over 350 yards and owns the three highest single-game passing yard totals in Super Bowls to date. He has a 65+% completion rate and a QB rating of 93.7. But given that the middle years of his career were spent as what many viewed as a washed-up journeyman back-up, some are debating his Hall of Fame credentials.


Well I think they should probably get off Warner’s back and look at his records and how good he was when he was on the field. Sure, some coaches didn’t have faith in him: both St Louis and New York elected to go with younger guys. When you’re talking about Warner, that’s a pretty broad category – he was 28 when the Rams signed him in 1998 and he was forced to step in after the Rams’ starters went down with injuries in the preseason. When he wasn’t injured or benched in favour of a young project, Warner was something else. He was a good game manager, but a great player. He didn’t have the clinical dispassion of Manning; he didn’t have the boyish enthusiasm of Favre; nor did he have the backyard smarts of Roethlisberger on the run. But what he had was a potent mix of the three. He was cool, passionate and canny. He wanted it so bad – a devout Christian and family man, he lived as many religious sportsmen do, leaving everything on the field. He would pour his heart out into every contest and often win because of it.


He was the underdog for his entire career. He started his pro-football journey started with rejection – the Packers picked him up and cut him quicker than Larry Fitzgerald can run the forty yard dash. He then played for the Iowa Barnstormers in the inaugural season of the Arena football league. He was signed to the Amsterdam Admirals squad and honed his skills in NFL Europe until being signed by the Rams as a back-up to groom. The best thing about Warner up until the moment he got his shot and went on to win his first of two league MVP awards, was that he was a failure. He was not expected to be a pro. He was stacking shelves for five dollars fifty an hour, for Pete’s sake! He was one of those guys you see in a bar talking about how he ‘couldda bin the next Montana…’

Then the dream came true. He got his shot. He took it in the most emphatic style ever seen in pro sport. And I mean that. How does it get any better? He plays the whole season, wins league MVP takes his team – the greatest Show on turf – to the Super Bowl and wins it all along with MVP honours for that game. Sure, Brady did a similar thing in 2001 when his Patriots beat Warner’s Rams on the back of a last-second Vinatieri field goal, but he was Belichick’s project. He was the future of that franchise. And he was surrounded by an indomitable infrastructure. Warner’s Rams were, as his Cardinals became, high-scoring, high-risk, high-octane teams. Bang or bust. And they banged their way to three Super Bowls in a ten-year span.

Who’s to thank? Kurt. And God, maybe. That’s what he would say, but then it’s easy to blame things on the divine when Fitzgerald is miraculously saving your ass every down.

What else can I say about Kurt? He’s a gent; a model citizen; and a future Hall of Famer. He should be in there. His career had more peaks and troughs than most, but it had too much drama, excitement and magic to allow it to fall unremembered. The best thing is, as Warner's always said, he can walk away from the game under his own volition with his head held high. See you in Canton five years from now, Mr Warner. And thanks for the memories! It’s been emotional…


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