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By KAREN CROUSE
Published: January 12, 2010
TEMPE, Ariz. — Twelve hours after shepherding the Arizona Cardinals into the National Football Conference divisional playoffs, Kurt Warner was rounding up five of his seven children for school. As others crowned him the king of the postseason after his near-perfect performance against the Green Bay Packers, Warner spent Monday reveling in the commonplace activities of fatherhood.
He made breakfast, dropped by to see his son Zachary at his part-time job at a movie theater and played bingo with his 4-year-old twins, Sienna and Sierra.
“That’s life as I know it, and I think that’s the fun part of it,” Warner said Tuesday as the Cardinals prepared for the New Orleans Saints on Saturday. “It’s easy to want to go and read the press clippings and see all the stories and watch ‘SportsCenter’ and hear how great you did. But what’s great is my kids don’t let me.”
Warner, 38, takes his role of family patriarch as seriously as he regards his directorship of Arizona’s offense. His devotion to his family is the reason for widespread speculation that this postseason is his career curtain call.
“He wants to be as good a dad as he is a quarterback,” Warner’s wife, Brenda, said Monday. “He wants to be there, be in the moment with them, and football takes him away from that.”
The morning of the game against the Packers, Warner, who is in his 12th season, awoke to a national report that said he would retire as soon as Arizona was eliminated from the playoffs, leaving with a year and as much as $11 million left on his contract.
After completing 29 of 33 passes for 379 yards and 5 touchdowns in the Cardinals’ 51-45 overtime victory, Warner denied that he has made a decision about his future. “I don’t think you ever want to stay too long,” he said, “but you never want to go out before it’s time. The hard part is trying to figure that out.”
Later, at home, Warner tried to figure out who was the unnamed source in the retirement story. “I asked my whole family,” Warner said with a laugh. “I said: ‘O.K., who was it? Who was the close source?’ ”
Nobody accepted responsibility.
“You never know how those things get out, who says what, what they read into it or what a close source is,” Warner said. “You find humor in it, and it’s funny.”
It is no secret that Warner’s wife would like him to walk away from the game while he is still healthy enough to do so. In November, he was sidelined for a game and a half after sustaining the fifth concussion of his career.
“I would give every dime I’ve ever seen in my life to take that one blow to the head back,” Brenda Warner said, adding, “It does change your perspective.”
She has her opinions, but is trying to steer clear of the debate. “I don’t even want to decide that for him,” she said, adding, “I just laugh that people are trying to figure out when he’s going to retire. People are trying to figure it out when it’s only between Kurt and God. I know God’s going to tell him, and he’s going to listen.”
If Warner had been at the practice facility Monday, he would have heard Coach Ken Whisenhunt express the popular sentiment.
“For a guy that’s played the way he’s played for us this year, it’s hard to think about him not continuing to play,” Whisenhunt said. “Just his ability to see the field, to anticipate, to be accurate with his throws, move around in the pocket, which he’s worked very hard at; those are all things that don’t let me think he’s ready to stop yet.”
Warner passed for 3,753 yards and 26 touchdowns (against 14 interceptions) in the regular season. His passer rating against the Packers was 154.1, the second highest in a postseason game behind Peyton Manning’s perfect 158.3 in a wild-card game against Denver in 2004.
“When it comes playoff time, you don’t get to say, ‘It’s O.K., we lost that one, but we’ll get the next one,’ ” Warner said. “I think that’s what I love so much about it. It’s the ultimate competition.” He added, “To me, that’s fun.”
In 12 postseason games, Warner has 31 touchdowns and has averaged 312.3 yards through the air. His career postseason passer rating of 104.6 is the second best in N.F.L. history behind Bart Starr. Asked if Warner is the best postseason quarterback of all time, Whisenhunt said, “He’s got my vote.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/sports/football/13warner.html
