Rasputin

Rasputin- A infamous Russian monk who survived 2 assassination attempts before finally succumbing to the third attempt in which he was poisoned, shot 4 times, beaten and then thrown into a river, the cause of death being drowning, the Monk that would not die.


In 1935 famed sports write Damon Runyon wrote: “In all the history of the boxing game you find no human interest story to compare with the life narrative of James J. Braddock.” Well I would adjust that quote just a little, substituting football for boxing and Kurt Warner for James J. Braddock. Like the famous Monk, no matter how many times left for dead, Warner keeps lunging forward.


We all know the story of his climb from Hy-Vee grocery clerk to NFL quarterback. He worked his way through the back alley in the arena league and NFL Europe. Then through injury wound up the starter and before anyone realized it he was raising the Vince Lombardi Trophy. His career has continued with two different teams and now he has the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Read that previous sentence again.


It was 1994 and Warner was a practice squad player for the Green Bay Packers. He was cut, his NFL career over before it began. Death 1

After playing 2 seasons in the Arena League, again he couldn’t find his way in the league. Left for dead a 2nd time.

Signing last minute with the Amsterdam Admirals he found himself embroiled in a QB battle with the unknown Jake Delhomme. Warner won the battle and after one season the St. Louis Rams signed him, as the 3rd string QB. Basically left for dead, again, buried on the depth chart with a mediocre franchise.

After all his NFL success with the St Louis Rams, including a Super Bowl title his career appeared over after getting released in favor of the younger Marc Bulger. Again, it appeared a career over as injuries took over his career.

He then signs with the New York Giants and after six turnover filled starts he was replaced by rookie Eli Manning. His finger hurt badly, his performance severely degraded and nobody lining up at his door this was finally it, his career dead, for the last time.

The only problem was someone forgot to tell Kurt Warner. Latching on with the Arizona Cardinals as a backup for Matt Leinart. The problem was Leinart likes chasing tale more than watching film, so Warner beat him out for the starting job. Through the midway point of this season many considered Warner the MVP of the league (as predicted by yours truly in his Outlandish NFL Predictions on the very site). He continued on his winning ways getting his team into the playoffs. And was we all know, once in the playoffs anything can happen, and anything did.

Warner now becomes only the second QB in history to take 2 different teams to the Super Bowl. Now the questions lingers, is he a Hall of Fame player. Well we can check the numbers, while his overall yards and TD numbers wont be up there with the greats because of the amount of years he has played, but when he has played well he is as good as anyone.

3 time Super Bowl QB
3 time pro bowler
2 time All Pro
2 time League MVP
8-2 playoff record
93.8 QB rating (4th all time)