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Both of them
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 10,225
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Warner gets a grip on role
Warner gets a grip on role
Quote:
The last time Kurt Warner entered training camp as a backup, his media guide biography was considerably shorter than it is now.
It was 1999, and when detailing Warner's background back then, there wasn't much that followed the comma behind his name. All that changed during that season. Warner took the St. Louis Rams' starting quarterback job when Trent Green was injured in the preseason and helped St. Louis win the Super Bowl.
He then became known as Kurt Warner, comma, the former grocery bagger who appeared in two Super Bowls and won two NFL Most Valuable Player awards.
Eight years later, Warner is the backup quarterback for the Cardinals behind Matt Leinart. It takes 12 pages in the media guide to tell Warner's story, one that has now almost gone full circle.
Warner is a backup again. He contemplated retirement when he lost the job to Leinart last season but decided to return because he likes Leinart, he and his family are happy in Arizona, and he hasn't quite gotten football out of his system.
"Of course, I want to be out there playing and still feel like I can, so I'll never be fully comfortable with that (being a backup)," said Warner, 36. "But at least I'm comfortable enough to know, hey, if this is how it plays out, I can handle the situation."
Handling the backup job isn't easy for Warner, however. In St. Louis, he made his mark throwing to receivers such as Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce. In Arizona the past two years, it has been Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.
In training camp this year, Warner rarely gets to throw to the team's top receivers. He's working with the guys far down the depth chart, and their mistakes can rattle a perfectionist.
"It's very frustrating, because I feel like you just want to take advantage of every rep (repetition) that you get," he said. "It's frustrating when you can't do that, when you can't play your game, when you can't necessarily count on guys being where they're supposed to be.
"You understand rookies, you understand the mistakes, you understand all that part of it, but it doesn't help you any when you're trying . . . to get timing, trying to get comfortable within the system."
Warner's main job with Cardinals is two-fold: to give the team a veteran alternative in the event Leinart goes down and to be a mentor to Leinart, the 10th overall pick in last year's draft.
Warner plans to play for two more years, through the end of his contract, and then decide his future.
On the surface, Leinart and Warner could not be more different. Warner is a devout Christian, and he and wife, Brenda, have seven kids. Leinart, 24, has friends among the Hollywood set and his social meanderings earn him frequent appearances in People magazine.
But the two have hit it off. Leinart has a son now, and he turns to Warner for advice on both football and fatherhood. Their conversations go much deeper than Pampers vs. Huggies.
"We had a good relationship last year, on and off the football field," Leinart said. "But this year, I'm a year older, and we kinda have more similarities in our life. You know, family.
"I've grown up a lot in the last year. I kinda can relate to him on different levels now. It's nice, because we can talk about anything besides football, and actually have good conversations, instead of me coming in like a young kid, and he's a big family guy and stuff."
They often exchanged text messages, only a few of which remotely involve football.
"We've been able to take it outside football, even though we've got a number of differences," Warner said, "different backgrounds, different places in our lives.
"That's one of the things that's drawn us closer, that family situation."
That's true on the field, too.
Warner doesn't mind his role as mentor. He gives advice without a tinge of bitterness at having lost the job. But he's not content.
"I don't ever want anybody to think I'm comfortable in this position, that I'm just happy being a backup," he said, "because I do feel like I could still play and play really well."
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Warner gets a grip on role
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