I'm Warning You... Kurt To the Hall, Inevitably!

-- by Brandon Huigens



The last few money-thin years, it's been difficult for me to get out to the stadium in Glendale to see Arizona Cardinals football games. Still, I've been to a few, and I've seen every Cards game on television for the last ten years. You could say I bleed Cardinal red, but it's likely I dig that pun more than you do.

A non-stop baseball fanatic, I started paying attention to the NFL just after '98, when Jake Plummer and the Cardiac Cards administered a beatdown to the hated Cowboys in the first round of the playoffs. About three years later, I began playing fantasy football, and my addiction to sports hit the Knight Rider Turbo Boost button. I've read Moneyball, Bill Simmons' Book of Basketball, The Bill James Baseball Abstract, and I have a big, glossy picture book of Jerry Rice, which I broke out last year during the Cards' magical Super Bowl run to compare photographs of the G.O.A.T. with our own beloved birdcatcher, Larry Fitzgerald.

QUICK NOTE: TERRELL OWENS IS NOT, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, THE EQUAL OF JERRY RICE, NO MATTER WHO EITHER'S QB WAS. HELL, I'D TAKE STEVE LARGENT, TIM BROWN, OR LYNN SWANN OVER T.O. Having said that, I sometimes dislike his off-the-field antics, but I like that he has created so much FUN over the years, inappropriate or not. He did do that. Plus he brought us a digital avalanche of Ed Werner Sportscenter Breaking News bits. I'm moderately indifferent about the Werder thing.

Anyway, there: I've made my case for having the acumen and knowledge to make the following statement: Kurt Warner is a Hall of Famer, no question.

For those arguing my apparent homerism: I thought when the Cardinals signed Kurt Warner, it was a total joke; a meager, inconsequential roster move for a post-gleaming-flash-in-the-pan, and that USC bad ass Matt Leinart was easily the present AND future of the Redbirds.

A few years ago, I had a conversation with the biggest Cards fan I know, Mike Banks, about Warner seeming almost smug in his confidence during the last battle between him and Lawn Dart for the top spot. We both felt that between Warner's dismal stint with the Giants, where often times, he looked as if he had gone to a pistol duel with a squirt gun, and the way he wasn't able to stay healthy for the middle part of the Aughts, he wasn't going to offer much behind some decent tutelege for Leinart.

The man with the fastest under-pressue football release I've ever seen simply looked as if he'd taken too many hits over the course of his celebrated, storybook career, and I was more excited about Edgerrin James getting a 300-sack of carries. In just a handful of years, however, Kurt Warner would become the heart and soul of a football team with a fan base terribly accustomed to 6-10 seasons being bookended with poor draft picks (Andre Wadsworth, Wendall Bryant, Alan Branch) and managements' inability to keep scads of competent players (Garrison Hearst, Simeon Rice, Thomas Jones, Calvin Pace) in AZ.

By now, everyone knows Warner's story - most passing yards in a playoff campaign (1156 in '08), fastest to throw for 10,000 yards, fastest to throw for 30,000, 2 MVPs, 5 Pro Bowls, a ring, and one Pippen/Jordan super-bond with Fitz. Warner also holds the record for number of times thanking God/Jesus for something religion has nothing to do with, but he seems like a genuine person with uncanny compassion. When Anquan Boldin's face was smashed vs. the Jets in '08, KW talked about retirement. I'm not sure I've ever heard another athlete publicly admit their athletic mortality being exclusively tied into a teammate's well-being. It's a hell of a thing, for a man to not only be an incredible athlete, but a truly compassionate person. Talking about what's right is easy, but following through? It happens less than anyone will ever explain to you.

KW meant a world to a sports community that hadn't seen this type of transcendental superstar since Charles Barkley's short-but-wonderful run with the Suns, and one that was starved for not only winning football, but a smart, competitive team that brought heart each week. This isn't a scene where everyone embraces local teams no matter what, like Green Bay or Pittsburgh. In the wild card game this year, when the Cards trotted out Frank Sanders - a stalwart Cards wide receiver during the sh**storm early 1990s - the applause was non-existent. In Arizona, where winning is all that matters, Warner was seemingly able to will his team to victory - an intangible shared by few, and almost exclusively shared with players who are already enshrined in the Hall.

Warner didn't fix everything, as the only defense worse than that of the Mike D'Antoni 7-Seconds-Or-Less Suns teams eventually proved our downfall in his last two seasons - more so in the recent NFC Championship game loss to the Saints. At least in '08, the D turned it way, way up when the playoffs got under way. In St. Louis, injuries and a young, super-charged Marc Bulger did him in; the Giants basically made him a casualty of their monumental trade for Eli Manning, which ended up totally working, if only for the one unbelievable Super Bowl game (good job, Giants).

Assuming the argument against Warner is based on his performance through 2001 through 2007, when injuries, and returning from injuries too soon, wiped out a fat chunk of six seasons. Warner's NFL career started at the late age of 28 after stints in the CFL and as a grocery stocker, leaving him with, what, 6 or 7 full seasons of decent football, after having NOT been drafted? Remember, Warner started off winning a championship in his first NFL season, and make no mistake - that team wasn't going to win a chip with Trent Green installed as QB1. During the '01 to '07 span, he only won 13 games against 29 losses, but again - injuries, injuries, injuries. When he was healthy, Kurt was cash money, up there with the best of 'em.

For comparison's sake, take Pittsburgh's favorite son, Terry Bradshaw, one of the top 10 all-time great NFL signal callers. Drafted number one in 1970, it took Bradshaw - who would win 4 rings, 2 Super Bowl MVPs, and 1978 regular season MVP - four seasons to finally get a hold on the position. When he did ('74), the Steelers won 8 AFC Central championships. Taking into consideration that Bradshaw played 14 seasons, that leaves him with 10 full seasons - easily enough to warrant a Hall of Fame career. Broadway Joe Namath played 12 seasons, and has similar accolades (1 ring, 5 All Star/Pro Bowls, 2 MVP awards, 3 Super Bowl appearances), but his overall career stats pale in comparison to Warner's:

Kurt: TD - INT 208 - 128, Yards 32,344, 9-4 Playoff Record

Joe: TD - INT 173-220, Yards 27,663, 2-1 Playoff Record

Looking at those lines, it's easy to concede Warner is an all-timer, isn't it? It almost makes me feel like an idiot for thinking the guy was washed up just a few years after being the architect of The Greatest Show On Turf. It should make whomever is arguing this point eat their words like Joey Chestnut going down on a tank of alphabet hot dog soup.

While the past five years have netted both phenomenal results for the Cardinals via the draft, and solid decisions on re-signing franchise cornerstones like Adrian Wilson and Darnell Dockett, the best move of the bunch was signing Warner, and I'll tell you: it's satisfying as hell to have been wrong.

Thanks for the memories, Kurt - especially your last home game - you flashed some Ted Williams-meets-Joe-Montana balls in The Roaster in the Toaster. We know it'll be a long time before we make it back to the big one.



I hope in the years to come, you let everyone know that you liked throwing to Fitz, Q, and Breaston way more than Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, and Az Hakim.

Now, folks: let's strap in for a season of Matt Leinart, which I (shakily) think is not the worst of scenarios. Considering the awkward career trajectories of Vince Young and Jay Cutler, fellow QB draftees of the still-young Leinart, there's plenty of time for the guy to develop while throwing to some dangerous weapons. Here's hoping we don't draft Tebow, sign Julius Peppers, re-sign Karlos Dansby (or drop him and get Shawne Merriman), trade Anquan Boldin for a sweet, sweet defensive end, and we watch Early Doucet break the $%&@ out.

And old Lawn Dart's arm is strong enough to get it to Fitz when he breaks free 16 yards down field.