Golden Arm

You sit in a dark meeting room at the practice facility of the St. Louis Rams, watching videotape of the team's 235 plays from scrimmage in the first four games of this season. You see what makes Kurt Warner a great passer—accuracy, mostly, along with toughness, poise and the smarts to run the most prolific offense the NFL has ever seen. You chart the 135 passes that Warner threw in those four games and find that 113, or 84%, were catchable.

You call Fox analyst John Madden, who has seen two of Warner's games this year, and he tells you, "Warner's accuracy reminds me of Joe Montana. His toughness reminds me of Bobby Layne."

You sit with St. Louis coach Mike Martz, architect of this high-tech offense, and talk about the success this team has had since Warner became the quarterback before the start of the 1999 season. This was the losingest NFC team of the '90s, yet Warner has taken the Rams on a 20-3 ride, including playoffs. "With any luck, we'd be 23-0 with Kurt," Martz says. "We could have easily won the three we lost."

You go to Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers at the Trans World Dome. You see that Warner is throwing even better than he did in his first four games. You see the trust Martz has in him: The coach calls for passes on the first 18 plays, and you can't recall a team going that deep into a game without calling a running play. Warner completes 13 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns and scrambles for a first down on another of those plays. He's in for eight series—the Rams score four touchdowns and four field goals—before leaving midway through the third quarter with a 40-17 lead. Only two throws aren't within the intended receiver's grasp: On one the man fell and on the other he was detoured in traffic.

Final stat line: 24 completions in 30 attempts, 390 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions. It's a performance that can be likened to Pedro Martinez's pitching against the Toledo Mud Hens. The numbers are so good that when you punch them into the computer to figure out Warner's passer rating for the day, you get the max, 158.3, a perfect game by football standards.

You walk off the field with Warner. You say, "Just another day at the office, huh?" He replies, "Not really. Finally I played a game where I felt good. I haven't felt like I was in a zone this year until today. I felt comfortable from the start."

You tell him that of the 165 passes he has thrown this year 85% have been catchable. "What happened on the other 15 percent?" he says with sincerity. "I want to put those where my guys can catch 'em."

You go into the San Diego locker room and you see a proud defense, which ranked first in the NFL in 1998 and 12th last year. That unit is not ashamed of its performance against St. Louis, despite having been shredded for 614 yards. You search for the right word to describe the Chargers' attitude, and it comes to you after chatting up strong safety Rodney Harrison—awestruck.

"Can you imagine a team with the best back in the game, Marshall Faulk, throwing on every play of the first quarter?" Harrison says. "Unbelievable. But with that quarterback and those weapons, who needs to run? This league has never seen anything like this offense. And Warner, no one's better than him. We watched him on film all week, and we saw his amazing accuracy, his poise, his timing with the receivers. He was even better in person. Tremendous presence in the pocket. The heart to stand in there and take our best shot. The accuracy to hit his guys in stride so they can run after the catch. I don't see any defense stopping him—or them."

Maybe we don't appreciate the greatness before our eyes because Warner's story was told so many times last year. Or because he makes playing quarterback in the NFL look so easy. Coming to a stadium near you! Kurt Warner throws for 375 yards! The Rams score 40 points! Or because Warner and his teammates are so unassuming. He doesn't spike the ball at midfield to show up foes, or give a cameraman the finger. His first 13 months on the job have been the stuff of myth. Warner, the 1999 league and Super Bowl MVP, has passed for 6,300 yards and 55 touchdowns, completed 66.9% of his attempts and put up a 112.4 passer rating, all NFL bests for a quarterback over his first 21 regular-season starts.