Time with Giants was short, unfulfilled

Kurt Warner spent one season with the New York Giants.

He spent much of it on his back. He spent the end of it on the bench.

A thumb injury had short-circuited Warner's career in St. Louis after six years. The Giants signed him in the summer of 2004, partly as a mentor to then-rookie Eli Manning. Warner wanted to start.

"I am going to go in there and prove to them that I deserve to be the starter," he said after the Giants opened their first training camp under Coach Tom Coughlin. "I think that is how any player has to approach it."

Warner was the starter for nine games. The Giants started 5-2, but Warner was benched in favor of Manning after back-to-back losses.

Behind Manning, the Giants faded to 6-10 in 2004. But he quarterbacked them to the Super Bowl championship three seasons later.

Warner completed 174 of 277 passes in New York, a respectable 62.8 percent, but threw only six touchdown passes in 10 games. Because of a lack of mobility and a bad offensive line, Warner was sacked a career-high 39 times and fumbled 12 times.

He never felt comfortable.

"I don't feel like I'm even close to playing up to the potential that I have and just being able to react and play. I don't feel like I'm there yet," he said in November of '04. "It's frustrating. It's hard, no question about it because you come out of games feeling like you could have played so much better and you're just not at the point from a comfort standpoint.

"But those are the things that happen. It's tough to learn an NFL offense and get comfortable with the guys around you and do that in a short period of time."

Four days after Warner's comment, the Giants announced Manning as the starter. By the end of the season, Warner made it clear that he wanted out of New York.

"I am not going to be content being a backup, that's just the bottom line," he told the Associated Press Dec. 29, 2004.

"I loved my year here, but I am not content being a backup. I think I showed people and did things here and won games and that I have proven I can play and start in this league."

In March 2005, Warner signed a contract - just a one-year deal - with the Arizona Cardinals.

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