I know they don't play until a week from Sunday but I have already picked the hero of the game. He is Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals. Why Warner? I hoped you would ask. My brother-in-law, Bobby Maurer, sent a story to me about Kurt. Then I looked up some things about his Iowa roots and the adversities he has faced and overcome. Let me share a bit.
Kurtis Warner was born in Burlington, Iowa. In High School he lettered in three sports. Picked for the all-state team, he received a scholarship to University of Northern Iowa. He didn't start until his senior year! That year he led his conference in passing and total offense. Green Bay drafted him in 1994. He was cut during training camp. He went back home and got a job as a stocker in Hy-Vee Supermarket in Cedar Rapids. His wife-to-be was a checker there. She was four years older than Kurt and had two children from a previous marriage. Her son was in a wheel chair. It didn't bother Kurt.It had broken up her first marriage. When they went to the movies the boy and girl went. Kurt picked him up from his wheelchair and carried him to the bathroom when needed. Brenda fell in love with this kind, young man. It was mutual. They had to have food stamps to live on. Then word came Brenda's parents had been killed in a tornado in Arkansas. Kurt said: "There were times I remembered praying that no matter what I had to do, just praying that the Lord would give me a job that I could take care of my family." "We loved each other and we loved the kids so our dates really involved him playing with the kids" Brenda Warner said.
Warner got a job playing with the Iowa Barnstormers of Arena Football. The Rams signed him to a contract in December 97' and optioned him to the Amsterdam Admirals in Europe! You've surely heard of them.(Ha). He then became the inactive third-string quarterback for the Rams.
He played in a Super Bowl game.He was traded. He was injured and out for a year. He competed this Fall against a Heisman winning quarterback and won the job. Now he is preparing to start in the Super Bowl game against Pittsburgh.
I could only think of a little rhyme from the days of my youth: "Quitters never win. Winners never quit.". It really doesn't matter which team wins in the Super Bowl, though I will be rooting for Arizona, I know of one player who is already a winner. Kurt Warner.
