Cards notebook: Warner plans to stay through next year | EastValleyTribune.com
excerpt:
That’s why Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt has praised quarterback Kurt Warner throughout training camp for his willingness to help Matt Leinart, even though Leinart took the veteran’s starting job last season.
“He’ll do anything he can to help us win. And he’s doing that.”
It’s helped that Warner and Leinart seem to have bonded extraordinarily well. They often are talking, laughing and walking on and off the practice fields together.
“We’ve become really, really good friends,” Warner said. “I want to see him succeed.”
So much so that Warner now is saying he intends to stick around through next season, when his contract expires; he didn’t make a similar commitment for this year until relatively late last season.
Said Warner: “The big thing is I made a commitment to the organization.
“I’ve always prided myself on being loyal to people who are loyal to me.
“The Cardinals signed me to a nice contract. I feel obligated to fulfill that part of it.
“I feel good physically. I feel I can still play. I sat down and talked to my wife, prayed about it” and made his decision.
“It was the right thing to do.
“As long as this organization wants me to be a part of it, I plan on doing that.”
For players in Warner’s situation, “It’s always difficult when you feel you can play,” Whisenhunt said.
The situation is eased by Warner’s knowledge that backup quarterbacks usually play at some point.
“When you have a guy who is as smart as he is, and who’s had success, yet is humble and has enough class to help the young guy out, even when he’s the guy who’s taken the position, those are the kind of guys who want on your team,” Whisenhunt said.