The Worthiness of Warner

With the impending announcement from Kurt Warner that he will retire as the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, ending an up and down career, many will turn their focus to Matt Leinart and Donovan McNabb, two names rumored to fill the highly desirable gig starting for a legitimate Super Bowl contender (or at least they were with Warner at the helm).

But before I get ahead of myself and start to talk about something that probably won’t be resolved until after the draft, I just wanted to take a look back at his rise from grocery store stockboy to Super Bowl and league MVP.

Warner is the rare wholesome athlete that almost everyone likes and roots for, unless you’re a fan of the other NFC West teams, or you simply hate him because his wife is obnoxious (which of course she is but I won’t hold that against him). But when you subtract his wife from the equation there really is nothing not to like. His story is inspiring. He’s deeply religious and a devout family man (who by the way also happens to be extremely fertile as his seven kids prove) and also one of the most professional and honest people in the game.

Warner has come a long way from stocking shelves and during his 10 years in the league left a lasting mark.

But forget all of that. When you simply take a look at his career on the football field, his accomplishments are pretty remarkable:

● Two-time NFL MVP (1999, 2001)
● Five-time Pro-Bowler
● Two-time first-team All Pro
● Super Bowl XXXIV MVP
● Threw at least 100 TDs with two different clubs
● Three highest passing yardage totals in Super Bowl history
● Highest playoff completion percentage (66.5%)
● Second highest postseason passer rating (104.6)
● Threw for 300+ yards in 45.2% of his games, an NFL record
● 32,334 career passing yards and 208 TDs with a 93.7 rating (third highest in history)

There are not many people that can boast those stats and accolades. But what a lot of people like to point about Warner is his decent, but not spectacular, win-loss record as a starter: 57-44. True, it isn’t elite, but still pretty impressive considering that he almost single-handedly resurrected two moribund franchises in the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals and his 8-3 record in the playoffs is pretty impressive. If you would have asked either of those franchises before he got there if they would have settled for a quarterback that could take them to 13 games over .500 I’m pretty sure neither would have complained.

There is also the fact that he did suffer from a few dead years in the middle of his career as he struggled in his last few years in St. Louis and he was allowed to walk so Marc Bulger could take over. He then kept the seat warm in New York for Eli Manning and even lost a so-called quarterback competition to Matt Leinart in his first year in Arizona (but it wasn’t really a competition due to Leinart’s lofty draft status).  But how many quarterbacks do you know of that suffered a three- or four-year slump and then regained the form they had when they first entered the league? That is no small accomplishment.

So what everyone will now begin to ask after he walks away is if he is worthy of being enshrined in the Hall of Fame. I know there are two factions out there and both have a legitimate argument, but I firmly believe that Warner deserves to be amongst the greatest who ever played the game because frankly, he was one of the greatest to ever play. His precision and accuracy were uncanny and he had the Hall of Fame quality of making all those around him better. His yardage totals aren’t up there with some of the elite talents like Marino and Tarkenton, but he played only a fraction of the time that they did due to a late start. I know he only had really six good years in the league, but they were a pretty special six and when you look at it, he was the third best quarterback of this decade and the two guys ahead of him (Tom Brady and Peyton Manning) are in the discussion for the greatest QB of all time.

While he’ll never deserve the honor of being mentioned in the same breath as Brady and Manning, he definitely deserves to be in the conversation about the great quarterbacks of all time and all of the great ones have a bust in Canton. Warner should be no different.