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Kurt who?
Rams' rookie QB gets more than a passing grade
Posted: Friday October 15, 1999 12:33 AM
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Kurt Warner has become the league's Cinderella, leading the Rams to a 4-0 start in his first NFL season. Andy Lyons/Allsport |
By Josie Karp, CNN/SI
ST. LOUIS (CNN/SI) -- Kurt Warner doesn't have Drew Bledsoe's arm, Brett Favre's savvy, and certainly doesn't have Troy Aikman's rings. He has something even more rare when it comes to starting quarterbacks in the NFL.
Anonymity.
"I know there were a lot of questions," he said. [There were] "a lot of skeptics out there that said, 'Who's this guy? Where'd he come from? There's no way he can be successful in the NFL."
That line of thinking seems to be changing. On Sunday, Warner led St. Louis to a convincing 42-20 win over San Francisco and in the process helped the Rams snap a 17-game losing streak to the 49ers. Warner finished the day completing 20-of-23 passes for 323 yards and five TDs. Head coach Dick Vermeil, who's got to be counting his blessings, says his young quarterback could be following in the footsteps of another signal-caller who emerged from the ranks of the unknown and into the history books.
"Kurt Warner could be a modern times Johnny Unitas," he says of the unknown who came out of nowhere to become a Hall of Fame quarterback. "Who knew about Johnny Unitas until he got his chance? You never know."
The book on Warner goes back to 1994. Rams' personnel director Charley Armey still has the two-page report listing the plusses and minuses of an undrafted, one-year starter from Northern Iowa who went to training camp with Green Bay and got cut.
"In our report we said this kid was capable of making all the throws but needed a lot of developmental time," said Armey.
Despite being released, Warner says he learned several valuable lessons. Among them, never give up.
"After I got released [by Green Bay] it taught me that there was more to life than just football and not to get caught up with this or that and the different situations and realize to keep going, and to know that my chance would come."
A similar reminder of what it takes to succeed greets Warner every day at home in the smile of his 10-year-old adopted son, Zack.
"Zack is legally blind," said Warner. "And he has some brain damage from an accident he had at a young age. So every day is a struggle for him and he's the most amazing kid I've ever met. And he's so special to me and to see the way that he struggles every day and to see his outlook on life is just incredible."
Kurt Warner sits with his wife and kids, including 10-year-old Zack. CNN/SI |
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The lessons Zack taught his dad sustained Warner's football dreams even in the Arena League. He spent three seasons with the Iowa Barnstormers, biding his time in a league known for being a football players last stop, not a springboard.
Even so, it was an experience he thrived on and enjoyed to the max.
"We got to throw on almost every down," he says. We scored 50-60 points a game and that's what makes it fun when you're an offensive guy."
The Arena League may be nothing more than a blip on the scope as far as the NFL is concerned, but not every player sees it that way.
"It's kind of rough," says Isaac Bruce who caught four of Warner's touchdown passes Sunday to lead the NFL in TD receptions with six. Among a group of team receivers who are now known as the "Warner Brothers," Bruce adds, "It's only 50 yards, guys running into walls. I wouldn't want to be a part of it."
And until the Rams came calling, the 28-year-old Warner was ready to stay in the Arena League because of his passion for the game.
"I was going to continue to play as long as I could take care of my family and I still enjoyed playing. I would have been happy playing Arena football for 10 more years because I loved playing."
The Rams noticed the top passer in the Arena League and offered Warner a tryout in 1997. Before securing a roster spot, he was exiled again, this time to the NFL's World League in Europe. His 300-yard performance against Baltimore in a 27-10 win in Week One this season shocked only those who had no idea where he came from and how long it took him to get there.
"He had already invested so much time," Vermeil said. You almost say, you almost read in him, 'I know I can do this, all I have to do is convince everybody around me I can do it.'"
The person least surprised by his performance is Warner himself.
"To me, I don't want to say it's not that big a deal, but it's not that big a deal," he says. "I mean, I'm happy to be here and it's a position that a lot of people would love to have, but it's a position that I feel I'm capable of succeeding and I feel I deserve to be here."
Warner is actually in a very similar position to the one Trent Green, the guy he's replacing, was in last year. When Green took over as the Washington Redskins quarterback, he came in having thrown one regular season pass. Warner says he'd be very content to be if not this year's Johnny Unitas, then this year's Trent Green.
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