Top broadcasters love talking about Warner’s story

TAMPA, Fla. - NBC Sports made its Super Bowl game announcers and studio show team available to the media here Tuesday. They are professional talkers who couldn't be blamed for sometimes getting weary of hearing their own opinions.

But in one-on-one interviews, some of the biggest names in sportscasting seemed to love discussing Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.

Bob Costas: "I can't think of anyone, but in any American sport, with a career arc like Kurt Warner's. It would be strange enough - stock boy, Arena League, NFL Europe, Trent Green gets hurt, he steps right in - that's strange enough.

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"But then to basically fall off the radar screen for five or six years, to do essentially nothing for five or six years, and then to bounce back at this level and lead a team to the Super Bowl, that's just the strangest graph for a career that I can think of.

"I think if he wins this game and he plays well, I think it would cinch the Hall of Fame for him. Whether he gets it on the first ballot - because the football election sometimes tends to be quirky - I wouldn't say that necessarily. But I think he ultimately would get in. If he doesn't win this game, I still think he has a pretty good chance. But before this season I would have thought his chances were slim."

Dan Patrick: "(Joe) Montana told me last week that Kurt Warner's a Hall of Famer right now. I value that. (Former Arizona Coach) Denny Green said the only pitch-and-catch quarterback better than Kurt Warner is Joe Montana. That's high praise.

"I don't know what's more incredible. If you look at what he did when he started, where he came from to winning a Super Bowl and an MVP to falling out of favor, a backup quarterback, we thought he was pretty much done.

"I think how he manages a game. He strikes me as how (baseball pitcher) Greg Maddux later in his career managed a game. You sometimes win when you don't have your best stuff. I think Kurt has been able to do that.

"When he was with the Rams, you'd be hard-pressed to find a quarterback who had a better three-year run than he did. And I think so much of it was automatic pilot. (Mike) Martz had this offense with these weapons, with this timing, and he did it to perfection. I look at Kurt now and see a guy who doesn't have the automatic pilot. You see him actually frustrated, angry, sacked, having bad games. With the Rams we didn't see that other than the Super Bowl when they lost to the Patriots."

"I think you saw more about Kurt Warner with that last drive against the Eagles (in this year's NFC title game). That's the one that stands out with everything he did this year. These are the Cardinals, they're going to find the banana peel. No, he'll go 5-for-5 on the drive and they score the game-winning touchdown.

"He just keeps writing chapters. We keep saying ‘How long's the book?' and he says ‘How long do you want it to be?'"

John Madden: "I don't know what happened, but Kurt Warner right now - and I've watched a lot of film with the Rams and their Greatest Show on Turf and all that, I did a lot of those games - he's the same guy. He went back to what he was with the Rams, and forget that stuff being away, being with the Giants, all that stuff. He's doing the same thing. I don't know how he's doing it.

"He ends up in Arizona and you think he's just kind of finishing up his career there, and then boom! He pops back up. He's the same guy that he was seven or eight years ago. How that happened I have no idea.

"He has a quick release and he moves well. Having Fitzgerald and Boldin helped a hell of a lot. But you say how did it happen, I don't know. I just think it's amazing. I saw him at his highest level and I remember what he was, and he looks just like that. I saw him when he wasn't that way. I don't know how he got back."

Tiki Barber (Warner's teammate in 2004 with the New York Giants): "He is legitimately one of the best people in the world. Marry that with how good he's been as a football player. He's what you want your kid to be.

"It's a testament to his will, his perseverance, and his belief in himself. I think he knew that he always had it. I know that some of the places he went, they just weren't the right offenses for him. New York, for example. We were a two-back, downhill-running offense, play-action pass offense. It doesn't suit his strengths. And he knew he was there to serve a role, to be a mentor to Eli (Manning).

"Then he got to Arizona and it was kind of the same thing. Fortune shined his way. He got Ken Whisenhunt coming in as head coach basically saying the best players are going to play regardless of status, injury, contract, whatever. That gave him his opportunity to show what he was about.

"The emphasis was getting the right opportunity, especially with the right coordinator. Todd Haley gets him, understands what he does best. I know in talking to both Anquan (Boldin) and Larry (Fitzgerald), they'll say Kurt made us better receivers because he forced us to fit into what he does well, which is precise routes. I'm throwing this ball on step six. You better turn your head around. If you don't get it right, you're not getting any more balls.

"His offensive teammates, they're kind of intimidated by hm. I think he has this intensity that you wouldn't expect from a guy who's as nice and mild-mannered as he is."

Al Michaels: "Obviously, it looks like he'll never be more than an Arena League or a Europe League guy and he's boxing groceries - we know all the stuff of the past. Then you have this unbelievable ascension which happens serendipitously when Trent Green gets hurt, otherwise Warner's still sitting on the bench in '99, then he has this amazing year.

"When Kurt Warner took over for Trent Green, people thought Kurt Warner, I thought he was the running back at Seattle. Curt Warner was the other Curt Warner, and then here comes this Kurt Warner. And of course the next few years were phenomenal. Then it looks like he's on his downslope, and, OK, he'll spend the rest of his career mentoring guys. Very few guys have had one phenomenal moment in the sun, and then you have another one nine years later. That is amazing.

"The thing about Warner, he's a good-hearted guy. The New York Times had a piece on him, he takes his family to dinner in a restaurant, has the other kids find a family there, and ‘Hey, let's buy them dinner, let's do something for them.'

"I think that's a pretty cool thing to do. He's not doing it to be a big shot. He wants his kids to grow up and ‘Hey, we're lucky, we have some resources, let's help somebody else, let's show some appreciation.' It's in his heart. It's not something for PR."

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