Cards' Leinart has to put winning ahead of all else

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt says that Matt Leinart will remain the starter. Peter Read Miller/SI

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I want to begin my Tuesday morning by thanking Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt for debunking the biggest myth in all of football: that you can't replace your starting quarterback for three or four series during a game because you'll ruin his psyche.

And then I wish to say this to Matt Leinart: Get with the program, kid. You look like a selfish brat otherwise.

So far, Whisenhunt has pulled the starter, Leinart, twice in favor of backup Kurt Warner. When Warner was a Ram, he won the NFL MVP twice -- in part because he could run the no-huddle and hurry-up and two-minute offenses brilliantly, and because coach Mike Martz could trust him to run the offense by himself when times got tough and the play clock ran down to single digits.

So nine days ago, at Baltimore, Whisenhunt inserted Warner in relief of the Cards' second-year franchise quarterback, knowing the veteran wouldn't be cowed by the crowd noise or jail-break intensity of the defense. Warner played great, bringing the Cards back from a 23-3 deficit to tie the game before Baltimore prevailed on a last-second Matt Stover field goal. On Sunday, down 7-0 in the second quarter to Pittsburgh, Whisenhunt inserted Warner, who completed 14-of-21 throws and left early in the fourth quarter with a 14-7 lead. Enter Leinart, whose clock-eating, 13-play, 82-yard, 7:19 drive ended with the winning touchdown in a 21-14 win.

Afterward, Leinart said he'd be lying if he claimed it was easy to handle. But he went on to say all the right things. But Sunday night, apparently still seething, he told my old buddy Mike Silver, now of Yahoo! Sports, "If I'm the franchise quarterback, play me and let me stumble, because I'll fight through it, and that will help me and our team in the long run. I know coaches want to win now, and they have their reasons. But I don't understand, and this switching back and forth is almost worse than getting benched.''

Boy, was that stupid.

Here's the all-time ridiculous quote: "I know coaches want to win now, and they have their reasons."

The Cardinals just had one of the biggest victories in their recent history, a week after a nearly heroic comeback on the road against a good team -- and both Sundays the team got a big lift from Warner. I know coaches want to win. Are you kidding me? Do you want to win, Matt? You look like a guy who's doubting a coach who's just put two phenomenal gameplans together and outscored two of the big bad wolves from the AFC, 44-40, over the last couple of weeks. You sound like a pretty big me-first guy ... someone who'd rather play 60 minutes than do everything in your power to win the game.

When I talked to Whisenhunt on Sunday night, he surprised me by agreeing with those who think you have to be careful with the mindset of the starting quarterback.

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