Is Kurt Warner a Hall of Famer?

By Larry Weisman, USA TODAY - TAMPA - The Pro Football Hall of Fame selectors meet Saturday morning to choose the next class of enshrinees. They will not be discussing Kurt Warner's worthiness.

Maybe some day. Especially if Warner can pilot the Arizona Cardinals to an upset victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday in Super Bowl XLIII.

This will be Warner's third Super Bowl appearance, starting two others and winning one with the St. Louis Rams in a phase of his career that seems like ancient history. He'll be only the second quarterback to start Super Bowls for different teams (Craig Morton did it with the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos).

Between three stunning seasons with the Rams and his last two with the Cardinals, though, lies a virtual desert. That's not a valley between the peaks but a deep, ugly gulch when his career as a starter seemed over and his value as a backup negligible.

Hall of Famer if he wins again? Hall of Famer even if he doesn't? That's going to be part of the chatter as Super Bowl week kicks off with the arrival of the two teams.

Let 'em blab, says Warner.

"They can debate all they want," he says. "I'm just in the Super Bowl. I like that."

Might as well enjoy it. Warner, 37, might have seen his most productive years. He's a free agent when the season ends and has not committed to playing longer or with the Cardinals, who have a former No. 1 pick, Matt Leinart, waiting to take over.So what do people say about Warner's chances? What case can be made for him joining such luminaries as Dan Marino, Troy Aikman, Joe Namath and Joe Montana? Should a bust of Warner reside with those of Jim Kelly, Steve Young and Warren Moon?

Namath, who led the New York Jets to a 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, ended his 13-year career in 1977. Eligibility for the hall comes after five years. The game's first passer to throw for 4,000 yards in one season was not inducted until 1985. Is anyone in the Hall of Fame more famous?

Open the doors

Winning the Super Bowl is no prerequisite for admittance to the Hall of Fame. Marino played in one and lost. Fouts never got there. But Kelly, who lost all four he played in, says another title for Warner should end the debate.

"If he wins this, then you have to look at what he's done in the years prior to it and yeah, I definitely think he's a candidate," he says. Warner's body of work, Kelly adds, "warrants serious consideration."

Let's look back. As a nobody from nowhere, Warner burst on the scene in 1999 with the Rams. Replacing an injured Trent Green, Warner threw 41 touchdowns to turn a 4-12 team into a 13-3 juggernaut that won Super Bowl XXXIV. He led the NFL in touchdown passes and passer rating while throwing for 4,353 yards.

In a three-year stretch, he passed for 98 touchdowns. The 2001 Rams, upset in the Super Bowl by the New England Patriots, went 14-2 and Warner led the NFL with 4,830 passing yards.

Then came the drought. A broken finger and other injuries to his right (throwing) hand and a concussion marred his two final seasons with the Rams, in which he failed to win a start (0-7). From 2002-06, which included one season with the New York Giants and his first two with the Cardinals, he threw a total of 27 touchdown passes. He lost his job with the Giants to Eli Manning and shared time in Arizona with Josh McCown, John Navarre, Tim Rattay and Leinart.

Then, the revival. Starting every game this season after starting 11 in 2007 for the injured Leinart, Warner threw 30 touchdown passes, giving him 57 in two years. Staving off Leinart's renewed bid for the starting job, he guided the Cardinals to their first division title since 1975 and into their first championship game since 1948.

"All he wanted was an opportunity," Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt says. "He got that and he took advantage of it. To see the way he has played this entire year has been great for the game."

His numbers stand up about any way they're sliced. His career completion percentage (65.4) is second only to that of Chad Pennington, currently with the Miami Dolphins. His career passer rating (93.8) trails only Young, the Indianapolis Colts' Peyton Manning and the Dallas Cowboys' Tony Romo. His 48 300-yard passing games rank fifth, behind Marino, the New York Jets' Brett Favre, Fouts and Moon.

Cris Carter, a finalist in this year's group of Hall of Fame nominees, knows a little about the forward pass. He's fourth all-time in touchdown receptions with 130 and a Warner advocate.

"If he wins this game, his third Super Bowl, I believe that he is in the class of other great quarterbacks," he says.

If Warner never throws another touchdown pass in the regular season, he will conclude his career with 182. Phil Simms, who played one of the greatest games in history in Super Bowl XXV for the New York Giants, passed for 199 career touchdowns. He's not considered Hall of Fame material. Aikman, who quarterbacked the Dallas Cowboys to three Super Bowl victories, threw 165 touchdown passes. He's in. Fouts never won a Super Bowl but passed for 254 scores. He's in.

So how to do the math? Titles? Touchdowns? Overall impact?

"In my mind it's easy," says Mike Martz, first the offensive coordinator and then head coach of those Rams teams on which Warner broke out. "There's no question he's a Hall of Famer."

Career arc

Warner kicked around the Arena Football League and NFL Europe before joining the Rams in 1998. He threw only 11 passes. When Green suffered a knee injury just before the season opener, Warner took over.

The Rams boasted frightening weapons. Running back Marshall Faulk could rush for 1,000 yards and equal that total in receptions. Receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt torched defensive backs.

"Kurt is playing better now than he ever did for us in St. Louis. Then, he was learning to play at a high level. He's so far ahead of the curve now," says Martz. "I could put things in because he could handle so much. It made me grow as a coach."

The first, unforeseen supernova season ended with the Rams beating the Tennessee Titans 23-16 for the NFL title. Warner passed for a Super Bowl record 414 yards that included a 73-yard touchdown to Bruce with 1:54 left to put the Rams up for good.

Three brilliant seasons and then the magic faded. In 2002, Warner threw three touchdown passes and 11 interceptions. One TD pass in '03. Six in '04 with the Giants before Manning, the first overall choice in that draft, replaced him after nine games. Even the quarterback-hungry Chicago Bears took a pass on Warner in 2005, so he bounced to the Cardinals.

"I was looking for a team that wanted Kurt Warner to lead. There weren't that many," Warner says.

Under Whisenhunt, Warner began playing in certain situations in relief of Leinart, who later went out with a broken collarbone. Despite a torn ligament in his left elbow, Warner gutted through the '07 season and threw 27 touchdown passes to help the Cardinals to an 8-8 record, their first non-losing season since 1998.

Then came the ongoing shocker of the Cardinals reaching for the stars.

Outstanding early, great late. Do the lost years work against Warner in Hall of Fame consideration?

Wait and see

The entire story is yet to be written. There's a Super Bowl coming and maybe more snaps, either with Arizona or elsewhere. Warner's chances could improve. Or could be hurt. Right place and right time seem to be the motif.

"The thing with Warner is the length of the career," says Charley Casserly, an analyst for CBS and former general manager of the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans. "He's been in the league 10 years but some of those were dead years."

Casserly says he doesn't know what the Hall of Fame voting process entails and doesn't want to say yea or nay on Warner.

"He deserves consideration for taking two teams to the Super Bowl," he says. "And at times in his career he has been an elite quarterback in this league."

Maybe those are the operative words. An elite quarterback ... at times.

This season has been one of them. This Super Bowl might be another, the career in microcosm. The discussion is only beginning.

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