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Warner just wanted to feel the love in Arizona

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Ian O'Connor

Updated Mar 5, 2009 6:55 AM ET
     
 
Deep down, in a faraway corner of Kurt Warner's heart, the quarterback was itching to fire the Arizona Cardinals. It had nothing to do with the team, and everything to do with the man. Warner had lost his job with the Rams, and had lost another one with the Giants. He was cut by the Packers. Reduced to playing with the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena League. Dispatched overseas to learn his trade with the Amsterdam Admirals. Warner was ignored by every major college program in America. He was a third-stringer through four years at Division I-AA Northern Iowa, a quarterback who needed a fifth season just to become a starter. And of course, Warner was the $5.50-an-hour stock boy at a Hy-Vee who passed cereal boxes and rolls of paper towels to fellow clerks on his down time. So Warner had lived a life of bad breaks and bad jobs and tough bosses. Finally, at age 37, he was the one in charge. Warner was the one who would decide Warner's future. Two potential employers actually coveted his services at the same time, and so his current one — the one that wasn't offering him a big enough raise — would pay the price.
Warner went off on his own recruiting trip to San Francisco, and charmed the 49ers with a convincing presentation. Payback is a pitch. This was Warner's declaration of independence, his one chance to be everybody's all-American. He wanted to be wanted; we all do. Warner was going to fly by private plane to San Francisco and make up for all those blue-chip visits the colleges never granted him. The 49ers outlined the offer of a full ride, too. They were ready to place him among the NFL's top five salaried quarterbacks, and they were ready to do it now. But truth be told, Warner wasn't seduced by the money as much as he was the chance to control his own career. Just once, he wanted to fire someone rather than get fired. He'll never admit it. He'll never concede that a part of him was dying to tell a team, any team, to take this job and shove it. The impulse is all too human, and all too easy to dismiss as a figment of some writer's imagination. It's something of a moot point, anyway, now that Warner's re-signed with the Cardinals for $23 million over two years, $19 million of it guaranteed. In the end, the quarterback picked reason over revenge. He had a perfect thing going in Arizona, and no matter how promising Mike Singletary looks as a head coach, a jump to the 49ers made no gameday sense. Warner has a Cardinals team coming off a near-miss in the Super Bowl. He has a climate-controlled home field in the desert. He has Larry Fitzgerald and, quite possibly, Anquan Boldin on his flanks. He has a good head coach, and a winning dynamic inside a franchise that had been searching for one for 60 years. Warner would've been positively mad to give all that up for a few more dollars and the priceless feeling tethered to an evened score. Forty-five minutes into his meeting with Singletary, Warner had his epiphany. As Singletary was outlining his plans for rebuilding the 49ers, Warner was realizing he had everything he needed back home. "I love what we've been doing; I love what we've been building here," Warner said at a news conference called to announce his new deal. "I haven't played for the money. I haven't played for other reasons. What I play for is to win a championship. I believe this situation gives me a great chance to do it again." Again. Warner won a title in St. Louis, but with a fastbreak offense as explosive as the Showtime Lakers, he was expected to win two or three. Instead of enjoying his own dynasty, Warner was upset in a Super Bowl that allowed Tom Brady to start one of his own. Soon enough Marc Bulger replaced him in St. Louis. On the rebound, Eli Manning took the ball from Warner in New York and ultimately won his own ring. Arizona expected Warner to serve as mentor to the latest college wonderboy, Matt Leinart. "I think the perception around the league about me was that I couldn't play anymore," Warner said in the days before his Super Bowl loss to the Steelers. "(People thought), 'There's no more football left in him, and he's basically just trying to survive.' And Arizona being a situation that hasn't won, they brought in a guy like Emmitt Smith, and may bring in this guy because of his name, but it's probably going to be just like everything else. "The Cardinals won't win, Kurt Warner can't really play, so I guess it's a fine mix. I think (the Cardinals) knew something that a lot of people didn't ... They took a chance, I took a chance, and together we've made something special happen." Warner didn't want to leave something special behind. On the other hand, he didn't want to be taken for granted, either, not anymore. From college on up, he'd been used as a tackling dummy by too many coaches and teams. So after leading Arizona to an unimagined place, after throwing for 377 yards in the near-upset of Pittsburgh, after throwing for 4,583 regular-season yards and 30 regular-season touchdowns in 2008, Warner wanted to see the Cardinals sweat. And when they were sweating profusely, Warner let the angel on his right shoulder shout down the devil on his left. He offered a hometown discount to the Cardinals, and another discount if they re-signed Boldin. Warner accepted $11.5 million a year when he really wanted $15 million a pop, and called it his last contract. "The numbers are definitely staggering," he said. But even better than this recession-busting deal, a good guy named Kurt Warner didn't have to fire anyone to get it.
Tagged: Cardinals, Rams, Matt Leinart, Patriots, Giants, Tom Brady, Kurt Warner, 49ers, Marc Bulger, Eli Manning, Anquan Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald

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