Warner flies into Super Bowl with Cardinals

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Twice upon a time ...

When Kurt Warner's storybook football career is over and the storybook of his career is written, "once upon a time" won't get it done.

Warner had already emerged from the obscurity of playing pro football in Des Moines and Amsterdam to win a Super Bowl, two NFC titles and two NFL Most Valuable Player awards between the 1999 and 2001 seasons with the St. Louis Rams. But when fading away seemed to be his clear destiny for a long time, look who's burning brightly again.

Though he is more clean-shaven than in those three seasons of stockpiling wins, passing yardage and touchdowns, Warner had a seven-year itch. He scratched it with a four-touchdown performance Sunday that helped the Arizona Cardinals - the never-any-good Arizona Cardinals - to their first Super Bowl appearance.

After seven years without returning to a Super Bowl or a Pro Bowl, Warner left University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday with his career fully risen like a phoenix in the desert.

The Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 32-25, in the NFC title game. Warner threw four touchdown passes. The first three almost seemed to come easily in the first half. The fourth capped a drive that forever goes into his and Arizona's lore.

Having led 24-6 at halftime, the Cardinals found themselves down 25-24 with 10:45 remaining in the game. High anxiety gripped a crowd of 70,650 that had been roaring at locomotive levels earlier. That was after Arizona mustered a measly 1 yard in the third quarter, after Philadelphia's capable defense started wearing down Warner's offensive line and putting increasing heat on the quarterback.

"When I got in the huddle I don't think a lot was said," Warner said. "I think we knew what we had to accomplish. Nobody was panicking, nobody was going crazy, hyperventilating, or anything like that.

"We just said, 'We've done some good things today. Now we've just got to put it together one more time.'"

After converting one third-down and one fourth-down on a methodical drive that ate almost eight minutes, Warner hit rookie running back Tim Hightower with a dink pass on third-and-goal from the Philly 8. Hightower bulled his way into the end zone for the go-ahead score.

After the Cardinals' defense regained its first-half footing and silenced ever-competitive quarterback Donovan McNabb and his Eagles offense, Cedar Rapids-raised Warner was back on a makeshift stage at midfield after an NFC title game.

Warner first praised the Lord, as is always his No. 1 priority. Then he played to the fans uttering words none of them had ever said since the Cardinals moved to Arizona 21 years ago from, coincidentally enough, St. Louis.

"We're going to the Super Bowl!"

With his moving from the Rams to the New York Giants to perennially woeful Arizona in an eight-month stretch spanning 2004 and 2005, and with the indignities of losing starting jobs with all three of those teams in that time, another day like Sunday never seemed in the cards for Warner.

He was getting old, on a club that never wins more than it loses. He was on a team that spent a lot of money and a first-round draft pick on golden boy Matt Leinart of USC in 2006.

Sunday, that team spent some money on "NFC Champion" ball caps for its players. And their head coach knows who deserved a lot of the credit.

"Kurt has really worked hard this year," said Cardinals second-year coach Ken Whisenhunt. "To play the way he played last season (with two or more TD passes in each of his last eight games in 2007 after Leinart was shelved with a midseason collarbone injury), to not be named the starter going into this season, had to be very difficult.

"There was never any complaint. All he said he wanted was an opportunity. He got that and took advantage of it."

Warner's first three touchdown passes Sunday were to Larry Fitzgerald, who has been utterly brilliant in the playoffs.

Without Fitzgerald, Warner's season is over. And vice versa.

"I've been around great players my whole career," Warner said. "They all made me better. The only reason I'm still around is because I've been around great players. It continues to be the case here."

Arizona defensive end Kenny Iwebema, a rookie from the University of Iowa, described Warner and Fitzgerald as "Spectacular. What can't you say about them? Those two work hard, man. You can see it on the field."

Fitzgerald may actually be the more serious of the pair. He came to the Cardinals' postgame news conference wearing a sports jacket and necktie.

His quarterback, wearing a red T-shirt with Chinese wording, slipped up on Fitzgerald and bearhugged him during the question-and-answer session.

"He loves me!" Warner told the reporters.

Fitzgerald said Warner "has been here before, and we're going to need him again for one big game ... and to come back for a few more years."

Warner then took his turn at the podium. He claimed not to know what the words on his shirt meant, then said "I think it's 'The Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl!'"

I've never seen him as lighthearted in all his 11 NFL seasons as he was after this game.

"Does it feel like old times?" he repeated a question in the quiet of his dressing room after most of his teammates were gone and on their way to savor the night.

"It feels like something completely new, something completely special. And I'm enjoying it."

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