 Kurt
Warner, St. Louis Rams
Kurt Warner isn't just the NFL Player of the Year. He is also the Story of the Year,
maybe any year.
He worked his way up the ladder from Northern Iowa (where he did not start until he was
a fifth year senior) to the Arena Football League (he was an Iowa Barnstormer) to NFL
Europe (he was an Amsterdam Admiral) and finally to the St. Louis Rams where he went from
third-stringer to All-Pro.
If there is a moral to the story, Warner said, it is persistence.
"You just have to keep your eyes on what you want to achieve," he said.
"I always felt I could play. I just kept hanging in until I got my opportunity."
Warner made the most of that opportunity, passing for a league-leading 4,353 yards and
41 touchdowns as the Rams won the NFC Western Division title with a 13-3 record. He was
the Maxwell Football Club's choice as Professional Player of the Year, winning the 41st
Annual Bert Bell Award.
Actually, Warner's story is not unlike that of the first Bert Bell Award winner, John
Unitas, the Baltimore Colts' Hall of Fame quarterback. Like Unitas, Warner was cut by his
first NFL team (Green Bay for Warner, Pittsburgh for Unitas). Unitas played semi-pro ball
for six bucks a game before catching on with the Colts. Warner paid his dues in the Arena
League and Europe.
And like Unitas, when Warner got his chance to play, he led his team to a championship.
 "Kurt has gone way beyond my expectations," Rams coach
Dick Vermeil said. "I told the whole squad that I started coaching in 1959 and I've
been around some really fine players, but I've never been around an athlete who could
handle pressure better than this kid. He has inspired us all."
Warner was a backup with the Rams last season and attempted only 11 passes, completing
four. He was projected as a backup again in 1999 when the team signed free agent
quarterback Trent Green from Washington. But when Green went down with a pre-season knee
injury, the 28-year-old Warner was thrust into the starting role.
He tied an NFL record this season by passing for 300 or more yards in nine different
games. He also joined Marino as the only quarterbacks in league history to throw 40 or
more touchdown passes in a single season, an astounding feat, especially for a guy who was
earning $5.50 an hour stocking shelves in a supermarket just five years ago.
For Warner, the three seasons he spent in the Arena League, where he averaged 61
touchdown passes a season, were the turning point in his life. His success with the
Barnstormers led to an offer to play in NFL Europe, where he was discovered by Rams
personnel director Charley Armey. Warner signed with the Rams and this season wrote a
story that was as inspirational as it was unexpected.
"I thought we would be successful, but to think in training camp that it would
happen for me this way was far-fetched," Warner said. "(The Rams) weren't sure
what they would do going in. They had some questions if I was even an NFL backup. But I
felt pretty confident.
"You learn to play quarterback by being out there and I played so many games over
the past few years, more than most guys. Three seasons in the Arena League, then right to
NFL Europe. That got me to play in a lot of games and see all kinds of situations."
"We were the only (NFL) team that worked him out after he finished in
Europe," Vermeil said. "No one else gave him an opportunity. Let that be a
lesson to all of us. Give a guy a chance." |
