NBC's Costas: Warner's story is a great one

Broadcaster Bob Costas was interviewed for this chapter - "So he told Cosell: 'Leave with me, Howard, or I'll pull the rug right out from over you.' "

The Kurt Warner story is a great story. Warner had one of the great years in NFL history ... He's been knocked around, done Arena Football, not protected in the expansion draft.

Publication Date: 05/27/2000

A guy, kind of a "42nd Street," stepping out of a chorus line into a starring role sort of thing. Course, in the modern sports world, you can only do that once, because after that you become a mega-star. And he has become a mega-star. It hasn't changed him apparently in the way he relates to people and his perspective on things and that's part of his appeal, but he will never be obscure again ... I've never met Kurt Warner. I've never spoken with him. I have no particular insight into this. I don't want to position myself as something I'm not ...

Two things happened simultaneously. It was not only that he emerged, the team emerged. He had been obscure, to put it kindly, even at the end of the previous year, when he even sat behind Steve Bono, and he was not protected in the expansion draft. The team itself had not had a winning year in St. Louis and hadn't had a winning year since the early '90s really, hadn't been a playoff team, going back to Los Angeles. So it's a double emergence.

This team comes out of nowhere to win the Super Bowl. There's no buildup to it. It's just - BOOM! And then he comes out of nowhere to throw more touchdowns than anyone except Dan Marino.

So it was a wild and giddy ride.