Posted on 01/11/2010 4:41:46 PM PST by pissant
In between being intercepted on the first play of the game and stripped of the ball on the last play, Aaron Rodgers was terrific in the best game of the NFL’s wild-card weekend. But Kurt Warner was better — historically good. He completed 29 of 33 passes for 379 yards, five touchdowns and no interceptions, with a 154.1 passer rating. It was, by at least one measure, one of the two best playoff performances by a quarterback in history.
Before Warner’s big game, 10 other quarterbacks in the last 50 years had a passer rating above 150. But nine of those QBs did so in a game in which they threw 25 or fewer passes for fewer than 300 yards. It’s easier to sustain that level of play when given fewer opportunities to mess up. Warner threw 33 times, while his team ran the ball just 23 times. The only other QB to sustain such a high level of excellence over more than 25 attempts in a playoff game was Peyton Manning, who completed 22 of 26 passes for 377 yards and five touchdowns, with no picks, against Denver in 2004. (Manning and Warner also have the only two other playoff games with at least 310 yards and a rating of 140 or higher.) The passer rating, incidentally, doesn’t account for sacks, but both QBs were excellent at eluding the rush — Warner was sacked just once for four yards, while Manning wasn’t sacked at all. Rodgers on Sunday exhibited his characteristic reluctance to throw the ball under pressure, taking five sacks and fumbling on that game-deciding play.
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It took TRULY good guy and ex-St. Louis Ram Kurt Warner to get me to root for the former St. Louis Cardinals football team. This after their historically inept, loser owner Bill Bidwill, shat upon St. Louis for close to 30 years.
Go Kurt.
FU BB.
But forget all that, all he went thru to get to where he is now is what is really the story. He had a dream, he had a goal and he never gave up.............God bless him!
There are very few sports stars I admire because I think too many people engage in hero worship. Kurt Warner is another story altogether.
You could not write his life story. Struggles to get in the NFL through the arena football league. Just to get into the NFL at that point was a million to one.
At best you would expect him struggling to get to the NFL to maybe be a third stringer but he becomes possibly one of the best QB’s based on his stats. A QB 151 or 154 (?) rating this year? Huh?
He is working in a grocery store and takes out his future wife with her kids on a date. She thought he would run from her having children being a single mom. He is an amazing guy plus his career at this age is astonishing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Warner
I am Jewish and I root for Kurt Warner because of his outspoken Christian faith. I can’t wait to tell my liberal cousin who hates Sarah Palin all about it.
He still comes back to St. Louis in the dead of winter for his warm coat drive, established when he played here.
He also went to Iowa to help out during the flooding a few years ago.
Those are both places he could have “moved on” from, now that he has re-established his stardom in Arizona.
Yet, there are still those idiots who continue to slam Kurt for his publicly thanking God for all his good fortune. Highly admirable and a manifestation of having one’s priorities straight, in my estimation.
But their backup QB, Matt Leinart did Bupkis against the same D the week before.
If you look at the guy’s life - you have to think God must be watching over him even if you don’t believe in God.
He is not picked for the pros then plays arena football then plays in Europe, stocks shelves. Finally gets in the NFL but is some third stringer. Then gets a start and is amazing. It seems young or old - some dumb team has him as a second or third stringer which he does not complain about. Through all sorts of things he gets his shot and is incredible. Constantly written off then he amazes.
I do not think any player has a story like his. Through it all he is a great guy who is very charitable.
If if someone is agnostic or an athiest - you have to think God is watching over this guy or he is some angel. The odds of what he has done have to be 10 million to one.
People might scoff about warm coat drive but after this winter - many people will understand. The NFL and the world need more Kurt Warners.
Yes, but remember that GB also didn't get called for a clear helmet shot to Warner in the first half.
That occured after the fumble. By rule such a penalty would not give the losing team a first down. It is assessed from the spot where the recovering player goes down. In this case, that was the endzone. Game over.
12 years ago almost to the day, on the night-shift at Hy-Vee in his hometown of Cedar Rapids, IA, for $5.50 an hour. Amazing life Kurt has had.
He was amazing (coming from a Steelers fan).
The Cards could have opened the roof. The weather was beautiful. They decided they wanted more noise to help them.
I guess it did.
So . . . the "losing at the end of the game" torch has been passed from the Cards after several decades?
Yeah, you hate to see officiating determine a game, but those things even out and only crybabies blame the refs. If Warner hadn't thrown that end of first half interception, the Cards would have won.
I know you’ve seen it before, when a team plays like they’re on fire to get to the playoffs, then they have a letdown, as if they’ve accomplished their goal.
That was the only worthwhile playoff game this past weekend.
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