Saying goodbye sucks. Call me a dope but ever since Kurt Warner burst onto the NFL scene in 1999 I’ve loved the guy. I suppose it’s a bit surprising that I was such a big fan of a player on an opposing team, but did you live through the 1999-2004 Cardinals? Those were not good teams (plus it’s pretty easily justifiable based on the fact that the Cards were in the NFC East until 2002). I reveled in the Rams Super Bowl 34 win, cringed when they lost to upstart Tom Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl 36, and would tell anyone within ear shot that Mike Martz gave Warner a raw deal when he handed the starting QB job to Marc Bulger after the 2003 season opener. One of my fondest memories of when I became a total Warner homer was during the 2003 divisional playoffs when my buddy Tyler and I wouldn’t stop calling for Martz to bench Bulger as he threw 3 INTs (and no touchdowns) in a 29-23 double OT loss for the Rams. That was Kurt’s last game as a Ram.
Warner’s one year with the Giants was alternately exciting and painful (and sometimes both at the same time) as Kurt led them to a 5-2 start before tailing off and giving way to snot nosed rookie QB Eli Manning. Oddly enough, Warner’s final start as a Giant occurred in Tempe against the Cards and he was basically sacked out of the starting job by fellow 2010 retiree Bertrand Berry. Even in a rare win for the 2004 Cardinals I was less than thrilled to watch Warner take hit after hit and lose his job…again.
By the time Kurt showed up in Arizona in 2005 he was seen as a journeyman QB with both fumbling and injury problems. ‘05 didn’t do much to dispel any of those notions and when Matt Leinart was drafted in 2006 , Warner lost the starting gig after 4 starts – his third lost job in 4 seasons. Enter Ken Whisenhunt.
In the third game of the Whiz era, Warner replaced an ineffective Matt Leinart and with the Ravens leading 20-3, he almost led the Cards back to victory. Leinart went down with a shoulder injury just two games later and Warner put together a solid season in spite of the fact that he had a torn elbow ligament for the majority of the year.
Leinart was named the starter heading into the 2008 preseason but a disastarous performance against the Raiders in the preseason put Warner into the starting role. I think you might know how things went from there:
- 31 starts (32 possible games)
- 8,336 yards, 56 TDs, 28 INTs
- 2008 NFC Championship
- 2 NFC West Championships
- 4-2 playoff record
In case you’re not much for reading comprehension, that means things went well. Since that aforementioned Ravens game in Week 3 both the Cardinals and Kurt Warner have done a lot to battle long-standing assumptions about themselves – and they did it together. As Kent Somers wrote earlier this week each party has been good to the other. Without the opportunity to be a starting quarterback it’s unlikely that Warner would have taken his career from that Terrell Davis couple years in the sun resume to that of a surefire Hall of Famer. Then on the other hand you’ve got the Cardinals and you cannot underestimate what Warner brought – hope. Entering 2008 the Cards had 2 playoff wins in franchise history. Yes FRANCHISE history. In the last 2 years Warner engineered 4 playoff wins and did it with surgical precision. He even took the Arizona Cardinals to within 2:37 of a Super Bowl victory. Along the way fan support has reached an all-time high and for the first time since the Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988 it feels like the team has a strong bond with the state – a great deal of that can be attributed to the contributions of Warner.
I’m about as cynical as it comes with sports, I expect the worst just to ensure that nothing ever disappoints me. Kurt Warner was an exception to that personal rule. Even at his lowest levels I always expected him to come back and hit grand heights – and he sure as hell didn’t disappoint. It was a fun ride and an absolute pleasure to watch Kurt Warner play – I’ll miss him just about as much as a fan can miss a professional athlete.
