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Kurt Warner Retires

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Zombo Rising Star

Zombo

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Friday, January 29, 2010

Warner, 2-time MVP, hangs up jersey

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ESPN.com news services

 

TEMPE, Ariz. -- Kurt Warner has called an end to one of the great storybook careers in NFL history.

 

The 38-year-old quarterback announced his retirement from the game on Friday after a dozen years in a league that at first rejected him, then revered him as he came from nowhere to lead the lowly St. Louis Rams to two Super Bowls, winning the first of them.

 

"Not much on the drama part of it, as most of you know," Warner said to begin a news conference at the Cardinals' training facility.

 

“

I'm excited about what lies in front of me. I'm excited about spending more time with my family, and seeing what God's going to do next.

 

” -- Kurt Warner

 

Warner said he'd been leaning toward retirement for the last half of this season.

 

"Obviously, it's been 12 unbelievable years, some of the best years of my life," a composed Warner said. "But I want everybody to know that I'm just as excited about the next 12, that I'm excited about what lies in front of me. I'm excited about spending more time with my family, and seeing what God's going to do next."

 

Written off as a has-been, he rose again to lead the long-suffering Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl a year ago.

 

Warner walked away with a year left on a two-year, $23 million contract, knowing he still had the skills to play at the highest level.

 

He had one of the greatest postseason performances ever in Arizona's 51-45 overtime wild card victory over Green Bay on Jan. 10, but sustained a brutal hit in the Cardinals' 45-14 divisional round loss at New Orleans six days later.

 

Warner leaves the game with a legacy that could land him in the Hall of Fame even though he didn't start his first game until he was 28.

 

In a comparison with the 14 quarterbacks to make the Hall of Fame in the last 25 years, Warner has a better career completion percentage, yards per pass attempt and yards per game. Only Dan Marino had more career 300-yard passing games.

 

In 124 regular-season games, Warner completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 32,344 yards and 208 touchdowns. He and Fran Tarkenton are the only NFL quarterbacks to throw for 100 touchdowns and 14,000 yards for two teams.

 

Warner, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and played collegiately at Northern Iowa, ranks among the career leaders in a variety of passing statistics.

 

He was also the fastest player in NFL history to 10,000 yards passing and tied Dan Marino as fastest to reach 30,000.

 

He has the top three passing performances in Super Bowl history. His 1,156 yards passing in the 2008 playoffs broke the NFL record of 1,063 he set with St. Louis in 1999.

 

Warner's rise from obscurity seems the stuff of sports fiction.

 

He played three seasons in the Arena Football League and one in NFL Europe, mixed in with a sting stocking grocery shelves back in Iowa.

 

Warner made the Rams as a backup in 1998, then was thrust into the starting role in 1999 when Trent Green was injured.

 

What followed was a masterful and wholly unexpected season, when he led the Rams to a 13-3 regular-season record, then a Super Bowl triumph over Tennessee. He was named the league and Super Bowl MVP.

 

St. Louis was upset in the first round of the playoffs the following season, but Warner had them back in the big game in 2001, where "The Greatest Show on Turf" lost a squeaker to New England. The season earned him a second NFL MVP award.

 

But after an injury-plagued 2002 season, he was sacked six times and suffered a concussion in a 2003 season-opening loss to the New York Giants. He never started for St. Louis again.

 

He signed a free agent contract with the Giants for 2004, but was replaced by rookie Eli Manning after nine games. Warner came to the Cardinals in 2005 and was an off-and-on starter before replacing the injured Matt Leinart part way through the 2007 season.

 

Warner had to beat out Leinart the following spring, then led the Cardinals to the NFC West crown and playoff victories over Atlanta, Carolina and Philadelphia before the narrow loss to Pittsburgh in last year's Super Bowl, where he threw for 377 yards.

 

Off the field, Warner has been just as impressive.

 

He and his wife operate the First Things First Christian charitable foundation. Last year, he was named the NFL's Man of the Year for his off-field and onfield accomplishments.

 

Warner's departure leaves Leinart the presumed replacement. The former Heisman Trophy winner has started 17 games for Arizona but only one in the last two years.

 

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/print?id=48...&type=story

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Furnier Newbie

Furnier

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I can still remember reading his name on the Expansion Exposure list back in 1999. How might things have been if we had plucked him from that list and taken Mike Ditka's offer instead of drafting Couch?

 

Doug

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Zombo Rising Star

Zombo

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I can still remember reading his name on the Expansion Exposure list back in 1999. How might things have been if we had plucked him from that list and taken Mike Ditka's offer instead of drafting Couch?

 

Doug

 

We could have had Kurt Warner and Ricky Williams.

 

Of course they would have been punished behind a poor line and the defense would have still sucked.

 

The Ditka trade could have gotten us on track faster ... but I just don't think we were going to be succesfull with Clark and Policy no matter what.

 

Zombo

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ATENEARS Newbie

ATENEARS

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If we would have listened to me, we could have picked up a servicable QB, traded down and taken Torry Holt.

 

Now, I wasn't yammering about Kurt Warner, but more along the lines of picking up a vet like Rich Gannon, who also had a pretty decent showing from then on out.

 

We could have went with the Ditka trade, plus made a better decision in the expansion draft (Warner?), and/or picked up a servicable vet (Gannon).

 

we could have just selected Ricky williams.

 

Bullshit on the aspect that we didn't have an o-line. Lomas Brown was an all-pro, Shaun O'Hara, Zeus, ect were only held back by the inexperience and wet behind-the-ears (not to mention dumbass, noodle arm) freaking Couch.

 

I hated the blinders we had on toward drafting Couch and I screamed from the rafters that it was a horrible pick.

 

We could have done ANYTHING, including drafted all Defense, and it would have been better for this organization than drafting that dink-n-dunk hillbilly.

 

Man, why couldn't they just have listened to me?

 

Ok, so I wasn't sold on McNabb either and hated Champ Bailey, while like Big Dumb Andy Katzenmoyer and St. Joe Germaine, but nothing screwed us up like that first overall selection of Tim Couch.

 

Therefore, I won the 1998 arguements that lasted for three years. I think zippy pledged to walk from Columbus to Cleveland in his underwear carrying a sign (or something like that) If I was proven right.

 

I also believe i was supposed to have a bar-B-Q in my honor with that asshole Tim Couch working/rotating the BBQ spit.

 

Dickheads .... I nailed the Drew Brees nomination over Couch too, and Torry Holt wasa every bit the stud I said he was. Ricky Williams would have been my choice on draft day if I had to pick a player, but I often said that i would take a blockbuster trade if it came available and it surely did in the Ditka trade.

 

My day has come ... pay up Zippy!

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samoth Newbie

samoth

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Warner would have gotten destroyed on the Browns, just like Couch did. Heck, if we'd come back one year earler we'd have Peyton Manning and even he would have been awful.

 

 

Actually, knowing us we would have picked Leaf.

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Zombo Rising Star

Zombo

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If we would have listened to me, we could have picked up a servicable QB, traded down and taken Torry Holt.

 

Now, I wasn't yammering about Kurt Warner, but more along the lines of picking up a vet like Rich Gannon, who also had a pretty decent showing from then on out.

 

We could have went with the Ditka trade, plus made a better decision in the expansion draft (Warner?), and/or picked up a servicable vet (Gannon).

 

we could have just selected Ricky williams.

 

Bullshit on the aspect that we didn't have an o-line. Lomas Brown was an all-pro, Shaun O'Hara, Zeus, ect were only held back by the inexperience and wet behind-the-ears (not to mention dumbass, noodle arm) freaking Couch.

 

I hated the blinders we had on toward drafting Couch and I screamed from the rafters that it was a horrible pick.

 

We could have done ANYTHING, including drafted all Defense, and it would have been better for this organization than drafting that dink-n-dunk hillbilly.

 

Man, why couldn't they just have listened to me?

 

Ok, so I wasn't sold on McNabb either and hated Champ Bailey, while like Big Dumb Andy Katzenmoyer and St. Joe Germaine, but nothing screwed us up like that first overall selection of Tim Couch.

 

Therefore, I won the 1998 arguements that lasted for three years. I think zippy pledged to walk from Columbus to Cleveland in his underwear carrying a sign (or something like that) If I was proven right.

 

I also believe i was supposed to have a bar-B-Q in my honor with that asshole Tim Couch working/rotating the BBQ spit.

 

Dickheads .... I nailed the Drew Brees nomination over Couch too, and Torry Holt wasa every bit the stud I said he was. Ricky Williams would have been my choice on draft day if I had to pick a player, but I often said that i would take a blockbuster trade if it came available and it surely did in the Ditka trade.

 

My day has come ... pay up Zippy!

Poor Skippy, I see you are still waffling ten years later.

 

"I wanted Torry Holt ... no wait,I wanted Ricky Williams ... Kurt Warner was my idea ... but only I knew Rich Gannon would become a Pro Bowler, that's who I really wanted ... I wanted the Ditka trade..."

 

Skippy, about the the only thing you got right was that you were wrong about that Big Dumb Redneck Katzenmoyer and Joe Geramaine.

 

In fact, we did have the BBQ, and Andy parked the cars while Joe worked the spit under Corey Bridges' watchful eye. St. Joe looked so cute with his Arena league hat on backward.

 

Zombo

--We invited you, but Hag2 got hammered and forgot to tell you ... you didn't miss much, but it was interesting seeing David Terrell heading up the clean-up crew.

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cambridgeho Rookie

cambridgeho

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In one year there will be the movie Kurt Warner Story and I will buy the DVD just like I did the Express and all the other fact based football movies. He was a great Qb, too bad he didn't start till he was 28, imagine people talking about him being the greatest of all time. Also he wont be doing the Farve and coming back for more, he wants to be able to walk for the rest of his life, the hit he took in the Saints game hurt me just watching it, being 38 his body cant handle it. Bless you Kurt, thanks for giving us 2 of the best Super Bowls of all time.

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Flugel Grand Master

Flugel

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Poor Skippy, I see you are still waffling ten years later.

 

"I wanted Torry Holt ... no wait,I wanted Ricky Williams ... Kurt Warner was my idea ... but only I knew Rich Gannon would become a Pro Bowler, that's who I really wanted ... I wanted the Ditka trade..."

 

Skippy, about the the only thing you got right was that you were wrong about that Big Dumb Redneck Katzenmoyer and Joe Geramaine.

 

In fact, we did have the BBQ, and Andy parked the cars while Joe worked the spit under Corey Bridges' watchful eye. St. Joe looked so cute with his Arena league hat on backward.

 

Zombo

--We invited you, but Hag2 got hammered and forgot to tell you ... you didn't miss much, but it was interesting seeing David Terrell heading up the clean-up crew.

 

LMAO - this is a classic!

- Tom F.

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Riffer X Enthusiast

Riffer X

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What I am going to miss is his brother, I mean wife in the stands. Seriously a first ballot hall of famer.

 

LMAO!!! Hey, she has hair now dude.

 

I have really come to appreciate Warner as a great QB and a good guy. A little overzealous on the religious aspect for me but nonetheless he means well. He had a great delivery and the Arena League really sped up his reads. He also threw a sweet ball very accurately. At times, he reminded me of DA with his precision.

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Kosar_For_President Newbie

Kosar_For_President

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LMAO!!! Hey, she has hair now dude.

 

I have really come to appreciate Warner as a great QB and a good guy. A little overzealous on the religious aspect for me but nonetheless he means well. He had a great delivery and the Arena League really sped up his reads. He also threw a sweet ball very accurately. At times, he reminded me of DA with his precision.

 

To be honest I think she is the only thing holding him back. LOL

 

BrendaWarner.jpg

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Gips Newbie

Gips

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Warner would have gotten destroyed on the Browns, just like Couch did. Heck, if we'd come back one year earler we'd have Peyton Manning and even he would have been awful.

 

 

I agree it would be couch contemplating retirement and warner or manning would have been done long ago...this team destroys QBs lets hope it finally ends under holmgren...it gets old hearing other fans call any of our new QBs "the next victim"...

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cdl15 Newbie

cdl15

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I can still remember reading his name on the Expansion Exposure list back in 1999. How might things have been if we had plucked him from that list and taken Mike Ditka's offer instead of drafting Couch?

 

Doug

If the browns take warner instead of couch warner doesn't make the hall if we took him instead of garcia his career would have been over after one year with cleveland and that is the truth and you know it. qb has not been the biggest issue since weve returned and real browns fans know that

 

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