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Cardinals’ Warner still going strong
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports 37 minutes ago
For all the times Kurt Warner persevered through potential career extinction, for all the faith he displayed in the face of rampant skepticism, this was one scenario he couldn’t have contemplated.
As Warner prepares to lead the Arizona Cardinals into Saturday’s first-round playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons at University of Phoenix Stadium, the distinct possibility exists that the 37-year-old quarterback will have outlasted the Arena Football League, the very entity that kept his faint NFL dreams afloat more than a decade ago.
“That,” Warner said Thursday, “is something I never saw coming.”
With the AFL having suspended operations for the 2009 season and staring at potential disbandment in a failing economy, Warner’s old Iowa Barnstormers jersey may prove to be a collector’s item. The same goes for the Amsterdam Admirals uniform he wore in NFL Europe, a league that went under in ‘07.
At least for now, the apron he wore while stocking shelves for the Hy-Vee supermarket in Cedar Rapids, Iowa remains suitable for dumping on eBay.
“It’s kind of unfortunate,” Warner says of his ex-employer’s possible demise. “I thought the Arena League would kind of go on forever, that it would get stronger and become even more solidified. I don’t know if I’ll outlast the NFL, though – as far as I know, it’s still going strong.”
So, too, is Warner’s well-worn right arm, which continues to dispense those wobbly yet insanely accurate passes in hearty portions. Whether the quarterback returns for a 12th NFL season remains uncertain, though given that he just led the Cardinals to their first division title in 33 years while earning his first Pro Bowl selection since 2001, the smart money is that the soon-to-be-free-agent will sign a new deal with Arizona sometime before the ‘09 NFL draft in late April.
Still, as I reported during a particularly dicey stretch early in the ‘08 campaign that included a scary injury to teammate Anquan Boldin, the prospect of retirement is something that Warner weighs on a regular basis.
While engaging in Saturday’s showdown with the surprising Falcons will undoubtedly affirm Warner’s childlike love of the sport, the pressure he feels to carry a team that has been maddeningly inconsistent is a constant drain on his enthusiasm.
“This season has been an emotional roller coaster,” says Warner, who’ll start for the NFC in the Pro Bowl in February. “There are times when I think I can play forever, and there are other moments where I think, ‘I don’t want to go through this again.’
“I know it’s hard for a lot of people to understand, but it’s really not the physical part of it that causes me to think about retiring. Really, where it’s worn on me is the mental part: For most of my career, I’ve felt I really have to perform at a high level for our teams to succeed, and it stresses you out. It’s like, ‘If I don’t have a good game, we’re not gonna win,’ and that’s taken some of the fun out of the Monday-through-Saturday stuff.”
Recent Sundays have, at times, approximated a Greatest Show on Turf highlight reel from the Rams’ record-setting stretch between 1999 and 2001, when Warner won a pair of Most Valuable Player awards and led the team to two Super Bowls. This season, the quarterback was considered a frontrunner to win a third MVP until he and the Cards (9-7), after clinching the NFC West on the first Sunday of December, struggled in lopsided losses to the Vikings and Patriots. He still managed to finish among the NFL leaders in passing yards (4,583, second), completion percentage (67.1, second), touchdown passes (30, third) and passer rating (96.9, third).
Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, who didn’t name Warner his starter until Matt Leinart struggled in the team’s final preseason game, credits the Super Bowl XXXIV MVP with making better receivers out of Pro Bowl starters Boldin (89 catches, 1,038 yards, 11 touchdowns) and Larry Fitzgerald (96 catches, 1,431 yards, 12 TDs), as well as the team’s No. 3 receiver, second-year man Steve Breaston (77 catches, 1,006 yards, three TDs). It was only the fifth time in NFL history that a team had three 1,000-yard receivers in a season.
“Another thing that has made a huge impact with everyone is that Kurt was willing to compete for his job,” Whisenhunt says. “I mean, here’s a guy who was a two-time MVP and who has had incredible success in this league, and there’s no entitlement with him. He was so eager to play that he said, ‘Just give me a chance to show what I can do; that’s all I ask.’ How can you not follow a guy like that?”
In ‘07, Whisenhunt’s first season with the Cardinals, the coach began using Warner in relief of Leinart, the 10th overall pick of the ‘06 draft. When Leinart suffered a season-ending clavicle fracture in early October, Warner took over as the starter, ultimately playing through a left elbow dislocation to help the Cards to an 8-8 season.
Yet afterward, Whisenhunt declared Leinart the starter heading into ‘08, and the team’s negotiations with Warner on a contract extension went nowhere. Warner, who had previously been discarded by the Rams and Giants, believed Whisenhunt’s assurances that he’d still be given a chance to win the starting job by outperforming Leinart in the summer.
“People like me, who are more cynical, would say, ‘Yeah, you’ve been told that before. How do you trust anybody?’ ” Kurt’s wife, Brenda, says. “But Kurt, even when things seem bad, tends to see things from a positive perspective. He believed there’d be a competition.”
Logic would dictate that, heading into next season, Warner would be the Cards’ presumed starter – if he decides not to retire. It’s a subject he and Brenda won’t start contemplating until after Arizona’s final playoff game, and a gesture of appreciation from the organization would go a long way toward compelling him to return. He does not seem to have any desire to be a backup, for the Cards or anyone else.
“That might even be the first component – what are their plans for the future, and do those plans include me?” Warner says. “If they don’t, do you move your family and try to hook up with a new team and learn a new offense? So the first thing I want to know is, am I part of your plans for the future, and are you committed to me for one year, or two years, or how long?
“In a perfect world, I would want to come back and play. I don’t feel I’ve been called to do something else yet.”
While also noncommittal, Whisenhunt sounds similarly encouraged that Warner will remain in Arizona in ‘09.
“I think both sides are very open to where we go in the future – at least, I certainly hope so,” the coach says. “I can’t speak for Kurt, but I think he’s enjoyed this year, and I think he’s pleased he could return to the form that he always knew was still there, but maybe some other people doubted. Hopefully, something will be worked out.”
Warner, who has seven children, could be playing for his legacy – his late-career revival has generated talk about his Hall of Fame credentials. But the deeply spiritual passer says he has learned to “trust that God’s plan for me isn’t necessarily the same as my plan. But whatever the situation, instead of fighting it, I try to use it as a learning experience. I believe God’s going to show me when it’s time to get out. When that happens, I hope I see it.”
In the meantime, Warner’s getting ready for his first playoff game in seven years, while the Arena League’s powerbrokers ponder whether to close up shop. How many of us saw that coming?
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports 37 minutes ago
For all the times Kurt Warner persevered through potential career extinction, for all the faith he displayed in the face of rampant skepticism, this was one scenario he couldn’t have contemplated.
As Warner prepares to lead the Arizona Cardinals into Saturday’s first-round playoff game against the Atlanta Falcons at University of Phoenix Stadium, the distinct possibility exists that the 37-year-old quarterback will have outlasted the Arena Football League, the very entity that kept his faint NFL dreams afloat more than a decade ago.
“That,” Warner said Thursday, “is something I never saw coming.”
With the AFL having suspended operations for the 2009 season and staring at potential disbandment in a failing economy, Warner’s old Iowa Barnstormers jersey may prove to be a collector’s item. The same goes for the Amsterdam Admirals uniform he wore in NFL Europe, a league that went under in ‘07.
At least for now, the apron he wore while stocking shelves for the Hy-Vee supermarket in Cedar Rapids, Iowa remains suitable for dumping on eBay.
“It’s kind of unfortunate,” Warner says of his ex-employer’s possible demise. “I thought the Arena League would kind of go on forever, that it would get stronger and become even more solidified. I don’t know if I’ll outlast the NFL, though – as far as I know, it’s still going strong.”
So, too, is Warner’s well-worn right arm, which continues to dispense those wobbly yet insanely accurate passes in hearty portions. Whether the quarterback returns for a 12th NFL season remains uncertain, though given that he just led the Cardinals to their first division title in 33 years while earning his first Pro Bowl selection since 2001, the smart money is that the soon-to-be-free-agent will sign a new deal with Arizona sometime before the ‘09 NFL draft in late April.
Still, as I reported during a particularly dicey stretch early in the ‘08 campaign that included a scary injury to teammate Anquan Boldin, the prospect of retirement is something that Warner weighs on a regular basis.
While engaging in Saturday’s showdown with the surprising Falcons will undoubtedly affirm Warner’s childlike love of the sport, the pressure he feels to carry a team that has been maddeningly inconsistent is a constant drain on his enthusiasm.
“This season has been an emotional roller coaster,” says Warner, who’ll start for the NFC in the Pro Bowl in February. “There are times when I think I can play forever, and there are other moments where I think, ‘I don’t want to go through this again.’
“I know it’s hard for a lot of people to understand, but it’s really not the physical part of it that causes me to think about retiring. Really, where it’s worn on me is the mental part: For most of my career, I’ve felt I really have to perform at a high level for our teams to succeed, and it stresses you out. It’s like, ‘If I don’t have a good game, we’re not gonna win,’ and that’s taken some of the fun out of the Monday-through-Saturday stuff.”
Recent Sundays have, at times, approximated a Greatest Show on Turf highlight reel from the Rams’ record-setting stretch between 1999 and 2001, when Warner won a pair of Most Valuable Player awards and led the team to two Super Bowls. This season, the quarterback was considered a frontrunner to win a third MVP until he and the Cards (9-7), after clinching the NFC West on the first Sunday of December, struggled in lopsided losses to the Vikings and Patriots. He still managed to finish among the NFL leaders in passing yards (4,583, second), completion percentage (67.1, second), touchdown passes (30, third) and passer rating (96.9, third).
Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, who didn’t name Warner his starter until Matt Leinart struggled in the team’s final preseason game, credits the Super Bowl XXXIV MVP with making better receivers out of Pro Bowl starters Boldin (89 catches, 1,038 yards, 11 touchdowns) and Larry Fitzgerald (96 catches, 1,431 yards, 12 TDs), as well as the team’s No. 3 receiver, second-year man Steve Breaston (77 catches, 1,006 yards, three TDs). It was only the fifth time in NFL history that a team had three 1,000-yard receivers in a season.
“Another thing that has made a huge impact with everyone is that Kurt was willing to compete for his job,” Whisenhunt says. “I mean, here’s a guy who was a two-time MVP and who has had incredible success in this league, and there’s no entitlement with him. He was so eager to play that he said, ‘Just give me a chance to show what I can do; that’s all I ask.’ How can you not follow a guy like that?”
In ‘07, Whisenhunt’s first season with the Cardinals, the coach began using Warner in relief of Leinart, the 10th overall pick of the ‘06 draft. When Leinart suffered a season-ending clavicle fracture in early October, Warner took over as the starter, ultimately playing through a left elbow dislocation to help the Cards to an 8-8 season.
Yet afterward, Whisenhunt declared Leinart the starter heading into ‘08, and the team’s negotiations with Warner on a contract extension went nowhere. Warner, who had previously been discarded by the Rams and Giants, believed Whisenhunt’s assurances that he’d still be given a chance to win the starting job by outperforming Leinart in the summer.
“People like me, who are more cynical, would say, ‘Yeah, you’ve been told that before. How do you trust anybody?’ ” Kurt’s wife, Brenda, says. “But Kurt, even when things seem bad, tends to see things from a positive perspective. He believed there’d be a competition.”
Logic would dictate that, heading into next season, Warner would be the Cards’ presumed starter – if he decides not to retire. It’s a subject he and Brenda won’t start contemplating until after Arizona’s final playoff game, and a gesture of appreciation from the organization would go a long way toward compelling him to return. He does not seem to have any desire to be a backup, for the Cards or anyone else.
“That might even be the first component – what are their plans for the future, and do those plans include me?” Warner says. “If they don’t, do you move your family and try to hook up with a new team and learn a new offense? So the first thing I want to know is, am I part of your plans for the future, and are you committed to me for one year, or two years, or how long?
“In a perfect world, I would want to come back and play. I don’t feel I’ve been called to do something else yet.”
While also noncommittal, Whisenhunt sounds similarly encouraged that Warner will remain in Arizona in ‘09.
“I think both sides are very open to where we go in the future – at least, I certainly hope so,” the coach says. “I can’t speak for Kurt, but I think he’s enjoyed this year, and I think he’s pleased he could return to the form that he always knew was still there, but maybe some other people doubted. Hopefully, something will be worked out.”
Warner, who has seven children, could be playing for his legacy – his late-career revival has generated talk about his Hall of Fame credentials. But the deeply spiritual passer says he has learned to “trust that God’s plan for me isn’t necessarily the same as my plan. But whatever the situation, instead of fighting it, I try to use it as a learning experience. I believe God’s going to show me when it’s time to get out. When that happens, I hope I see it.”
In the meantime, Warner’s getting ready for his first playoff game in seven years, while the Arena League’s powerbrokers ponder whether to close up shop. How many of us saw that coming?
