Cardinals’ Warner Walks Away After 12 Improbable Years

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By JUDY BATTISTA
Published: January 29, 2010
Kurt Warner took a job stocking grocery store shelves in Iowa after his first rejection from the National Football League, just one of the stops on Warner’s unorthodox path to stardom. There was no stint at a top college or selection in a high draft round. Instead, Warner wound through the backwaters of the Arena Football League and the now-defunct N.F.L. Europe.

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Kurt Warner announced his retirement on Friday. He walked away with a year left on a two-year, $23 million contract.

But on Friday, when Warner retired after a dozen years in the N.F.L., he went out as a possible future Hall of Fame selection, having built an extraordinary career with one Super Bowl title and two league Most Valuable Player awards from an out-of-nowhere start and stunning resilience.

Warner walked away with a year remaining on a two-year, $23 million contract, and he displayed as much dignity during his exit as he did during the twists and turns of his playing years.

“Obviously, it’s been 12 unbelievable years, some of the best years of my life,” Warner said at a news conference in Glendale, Ariz. “But I want everybody to know that I’m just as excited about the next 12, that I’m excited about what lies in front of me. I’m excited about spending more time with my family, and seeing what God’s going to do next.”

The humble beginning to Warner’s career — he did not start his first N.F.L. game until he was 28 — gave way to one in which, with surgical precision, he resurrected two also-ran franchises, carrying both to the Super Bowl while also becoming known as one of the league’s most charitable players. Warner, his wife, Brenda, and their seven children routinely select a family at a restaurant and anonymously pay their dinner tab, as a way to teach the children charity.

In 1998, the St. Louis Rams gave Warner the break he needed. Having signed him the previous December, they allocated him to N.F.L. Europe, where he led the league in several statistical categories. By 1999, the Rams had made him the backup to Trent Green. When Green tore a knee ligament during the preseason, the unknown quarterback was thrust into the starting job, and the Greatest Show on Turf was born. He was the league and Super Bowl most valuable player that season. He was the league’s M.V.P. again two years later, when the Rams lost the Super Bowl in the final seconds to a burgeoning dynasty from New England.

“We all learned great lessons from Kurt’s humility, dignity and grace,” the Rams’ owner, Chip Rosenbloom, said in a statement. “We will forever be thankful for the success he brought us and the unparalleled generosity he has shown the St. Louis community and beyond.”

Those seasons now seem a mere prelude to remarkable turns he took after them. He played poorly in 2002 and was replaced as the starter after being sacked six times and sustaining a concussion against the Giants to start the 2003 season. He was written off as a has-been. In 2004, the Giants signed him, and he won five of his first seven games. But a two-game losing streak opened the door to the Eli Manning era, and Warner was washed up once more.

But then came the final turn, when the Arizona Cardinals, a perennial laughingstock, signed Warner in 2005. He briefly lost his job there to Josh McCown in 2005 and then to the rookie Matt Leinart in 2006. But he won the job back in 2007, when the highly regarded Leinart faltered. Leinart could not hold Warner off again in 2008, and he led the Cardinals to an improbable Super Bowl appearance, where they narrowly lost to the Steelers.

In a 51-45 victory over the Packers in this year’s playoffs, Warner threw more touchdown passes (five) than incompletions (four) in a 29-of-33 performance for 379 yards. It will be the last victory of his career.

In five years, Warner will be eligible for consideration to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and his credentials during the N.F.L.’s pass-happy era seem to make him a solid contender. In 125 regular-season games, Warner completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 32,344 yards and 208 touchdowns. Fourteen quarterbacks have been elected to the Hall of Fame in the last 25 years, and Warner has a better completion percentage, more net yards per pass attempt and more yards per game than all of them.

Only Dan Marino — who never won a Super Bowl — had more career 300-yard passing games. Warner was the fastest player in N.F.L. history to 10,000 yards passing, and he tied Marino as fastest to reach 30,000. Warner also has the top three passing performances in Super Bowl history. His 1,147 yards passing in the 2008 playoffs broke the N.F.L. record of 1,063, which he set with St. Louis in 1999.

Warner’s departure turns the Cardinals over to Leinart. Leinart has the pedigree Warner lacked — he is a Heisman Trophy winner and a first-round draft pick. But neither he nor anyone else might ever again have Warner’s storybook career.