PFHOF Profile: Kurt Warner
The thing that makes sports so entertaining is simply the stories that surround the sport and the people who play them.
People fall in love with the stories that are around the players and the teams and that is what helps them become lifetime fans.
In the world of sports, there may be no league that knows the power of a story more than the NFL.
It is a big reason why they are as big as they are because they know to build and sell stories to get the fans personally involved.
The league is by far the best at getting those stories and making sure they are out there to the public.
It is how they made their way to the top in North American sports but it can sometimes be a bit too much.
The league can often make something out of absolutely nothing and as the years move on it is becoming more like that every season.
The No Fun League doesn’t have the same characters it once did because players are not allowed to be individuals as much as in years past.
So when it comes to talking points there are plenty of media making massive storylines out of absolutely nothing.
It can lead to a lot of endless talk about something that has little to no impact on the game but stories drive the league and so they keep coming.
Not every story is pointless though as some are so great they just seem to be too good to be true.
Some stories come along and it is hard to believe that they weren’t just created by the NFL brass as a future movie.
That is the story of Kurt Warner who went through a movie-like life that is now ending with a gold jacket and a bust in Canton.
It all started much like so many football players in North America as Warner was simply a good, not great, high school quarterback.
He went to the University of Northern Iowa and never really broke through as he was a third stringer for the majority of his college career.
He did get some recognition when he did play and eventually, the Green Bay Packers took a shot signing him after the 1994 draft.
He didn’t last long though as three great quarterbacks were ahead of him and his time in the NFL was cut short before he even made it to the regular season.
It is an endless tale as so many players have had the same path, doing good enough to get some interest but falling short of making an NFL team.
Most of them move on to other careers whether it be in football or anything else as more players fail to make the league than actually make it.
Warner seemed like that guy as he went back home and worked at the Cedar Falls grocery store stocking shelves with his NFL dreams basically over.
He got another chance to play football when the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League where he played for three seasons.
He got noticed after winning the MVP in the AFL and NFL teams began to show interest until he earned another shot with the St. Louis Rams.
His first year with the Rams he was sent to NFL Europe where he played for the Amsterdam Admirals.
Then he made his way back to the USA where he spent years sitting low on the depth chart in what seemed to simply be a repeat of his past.
In 1999 Warner was the second stringer behind Trent Green and had very little hope of starting until Green tore his ACL in the preseason.
Warner was now the starter and that was the only chance he needed as he took over Dick Vermeil’s offence and ran with it to become one of the best QBs in the game.
He led an offence nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf” and put up massive passing numbers that had never been seen before.
That offence took home Super Bowl XXXIV in Warner’s first season as a starter and Warner never looked back.
He continued to lead the Rams through 2003 taking two NFL MVP awards in leading one of the greatest NFL offences ever.
He continued his career outside of St. Louis heading to New York for a season and then seeing a career resurgence in Arizona that likely clinched his eventual Hall of Fame candidacy.
It is a story that seems like it was made in a Hollywood writing room but it was what Warner lived through, although it is about to be a movie soon.
He never truly gave up on his hopes of being an NFL quarterback and despite all of the winding around, he did exactly that.
The story is spectacular and there is no better ending than earning his bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
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