Rams’ Super Bowl quarterback Kurt Warner is a not only a football hero, he is a human hero.
This is an underdog who made it big.
While he still is a very good quarterback, he has remained a humble man who did not let his legendary play – which was known as legendary while he played during his Super Bowl run – and the glitter and glitz of success, wealth and the fame of professional sports corrupt his humanity.
He does not mistake his own success with what God has blessed him with; rather, Kurt Warner gives to God all of the successes he has achieved. Warner does this by living as an example of how a good person should live; that he is a Christian is noteworthy, but his example should stand out to people of all religions.
The Green Bay Packers cut Warner in 1994, and who can blame them because they knew what they had found in Favre by then. As a result, he stocked shelves at a Cedar Falls Hy-Vee for $5.50 an hour. If you add up his football contract and divide it by his football hours, that’s probably what he has been paid per minute over the course of his successful career.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not Kurt Warner the Ram lover. This guy and the Rams dethroned the Niners’ 12 of a 13-season run as NFC West champs.
The Niners had beat the Rams 17 out of the past 18 games, which was vitally important to me, because as a kid, Mario’s, my brother, favorite team was the Rams and they always seemed to beat the Niners. That really upset me. Actually, it still does. I'm sure my brother enjoyed the Rams' success, even though by then Mario had tragically passed away.
Although the rivalry has diminished a bit because the team is now in St. Louis, I still "hate" the Rams and everything about them, including Warners' Super Bowl run.
I say the Niners will end up in L.A. because the Bay Area is too stupid to work with the the team to build a stadium, but that’s another story.
As a sports fan, a 49er Faithful since I tasted my first mouthful of sourdough and clam chowder as a tot in the Bay Area, it is easy for sports-loving fans, especially 49er Faithful, to understand why I “hated” Warner with a passion during his two Super Bowl run. The guy was scintillating; sports prognosticators were saying he was the second coming of Joe Montana but better.
All the same junk you hear about Brett Favre. Yes, they are great quarterbacks, Favre having better stats, but even Favre could not compare to the Martz offense nor Warner's accuracy and success during the years that Warner prospered.
Look up Warner on the Web and you will find his amazing stats; but, again, it’s Warner the Christian who is more inspiring because he has been able to incorporate his religious humanity in a league that pits quarterbacks on the same team against each other.
Case in point: Warner plays behind former USC star quarterback Matt Leinart, who has had great difficulty adapting to the NFL, although many of those same idiot sports prognosticators said Leinart was the quantum coming of Joe Montana, since every potentially good or every great quarterback is somehow compared to Montana.
Montana Leinart is not, and this young man has not even had the success that Warner has enjoyed.
Warner, although he towers over Leinart and is a better quarterback in my opinion at this
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