Kurt Warner Remains an Arizona Cardinal

Kurt Warner and his Arizona Cardinals coach, Ken Whisenhunt, had cheerier expressions today (AP photo)

Well, that worked out just the way Kurt Warner wanted it.

And, I presume, the way the Arizona Cardinals wanted it.

The Cardinals and Warner did a deal Wednesday. The 38-year-old QB by way of Cedar Rapids has agreed to two y ears for $23 million, with a whopping $19 million guaranteed.

That was the basic offer Warner put to Arizona, and the team accepted. His signing bonus is $15 million, and his base salary will be $4 million a year.

Everybody’s happy, except the San Francisco 49ers, who wasted their time hosting Warner last weekend. But that’s sports. Had Arizona been deaf to Warner’s proposal, the Niners would have been in prime position to latch onto him.

Now, the Cardinals have to make wide receiver Anquan Boldin happy. Boldin is under contract for two more years (this is an edit, I originally mistakenly said he was a free agent), but wants an extension.

If the quartet of Warner and receivers Boldin, Larry Fitzgerald and Steve Breaston stay together, the Cardinals’ offense will be must-see TV for another year or two.

Boldin is a must in my mind. He’s a tough, talented ball-catcher. Without him, defenses can key on Fitzgerald a lot more. And, as George Costanza once screamed, the whole system is breaking down.

Pop culture references (even those that are 15 years old) … I hate ‘em.

Anyway, the first time Warner quarterbacked the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl, it was followed by a lot more winning over the next two years. Do you see the same scenario playing out in the Arizona desert with the Cardinals?

NFL teams — and I’ll bet this is the first time anyone ever used this analogy with pro football clubs — are delicate flowers. Super Bowl losers seem to have a knack for fading away quickly.

So here’s one of those dandy little polls to gauge your feelings on the matter:

Kurt Warner: “We’re Done”

Kurt Warner made this announcement last Friday on the Tonight Show.

Meanwhile, Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the temerity to suggest a) Brett Favre was overrated and b) Warner is better than Favre was.

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/2009/02/12/favre-retires-again-say-its-so-brett-say-its-so/

Clip of Kurt Warner on “Ellen”

America loves a dancing quarterback.

Warner Did New York Once, But He Won’t Do New York, New York

Steve Serby, N.Y. Post

Phil Leotardo, "The Sopranos"

Steve Serby of the New York Post thinks the New York Jets should sign free agent quarterback Kurt Warner of Cedar Rapids and UNI to replace the retiring Brett Favre.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02122009/sports/jets/make_kurt_plan_a_154702.htm

Before I proceed, know that Serby is not the fellow who played Tony Soprano’s nemesis, Phil Leotardo, in “The Sopranos.” That was an actor named Frank Vincent.

The above photos don’t bear it out, but I saw Serby at the Super Bowl this month, and immediately thought of Leotardo, who met a worse-than-usual demise for a “Sopranos” character.

Anyway, it’s not happening, Phil. I mean, Steve.

Warner isn’t going to start over somewhere else, which is what he’ll be in the 2009 NFL season. It’s remain with the Arizona Cardinals or hang up the pads.

Warner turns 38 on June 4 and has said he doesn’t want to play elsewhere. Knowing that, the Cardinals might seek a discount in negotiations.

“I don’t look at discounts,” (Warner’s agent, Mark) Bartelstein said. “Every deal has its own unique circumstances. I don’t go into it with a preconceived notion. You find what the issues are with your client and for the team and try to agree on something that makes sense.”

The Arizona Republic’s story on the matter, including the previous two paragraphs:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/2009/02/09/20090209cardswarner.html

What doesn’t make sense is going to New York, where Warner struggled through the 2004 season with the Giants. New Jersey, actually.

The Jets don’t have a Larry Fitzgerald at receiver. They don’t even have a Larry David. OK, that’s not fair to Jermaine Cotchery or Laveranues Coles. But it’s a good excuse to include David, a personal favorite.

Larry David, here for no good reason

But things are shifting seismically within the Cardinals, which is weird for a team coming off a Super Bowl run.

Offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s jump to become head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs is understandable, of course. But Arizona Coach Ken Whisenhunt is changing more than that.

Defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast got fired last weekend. Quarterbacks coach Jeff Rutledge got the sack, pun intended, this week.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/sports/articles/2009/02/10/20090210spt-cardscoaches.html

Cedar Rapids/UNI folks will be interested to note in that story that former Washington Warrior/UNI Panther Dedric Ward may become the Cardinals’ new receivers coach. Ward is a two-year offensive quality control coach for Whisenhunt.

How odd would it be for Warner to be throwing passes to receivers coached by Ward? OK, it might not be odd, but it’s still kind of interesting since Warner was a fifth-year senior passing to a first-year freshman Ward when they were together at Northern Iowa.

Hlas Column: I Was Wrong About Warner’s Legacy from This Super Bowl

Kurt Warner: Adds to his status even in defeat

I erred.

In Monday’s Gazette, written in the heat of the moment after Sunday night’s Super Bowl, I suggested the thing Kurt Warner would be remembered most for from the game was the interception that Pittsburgh’s James Harrison returned 100 yards for a touchdown.

A couple of days and a thousand miles removed from Tampa, I withdraw the opinion.

Listening to and reading a considerable number of opinions from people in the national sports media, it is high-def clear that admiration of Warner as a player only rose after his Arizona Cardinals’ 27-23 loss to the Steelers.

Harrison’s pick was one moment gone awry. Warner’s fourth-quarter was a superb piece of work that has deservedly been noted and praised by all sorts of folks.

Had any Cardinal capitalized on any of the team’s multiple opportunities to stop Harrison from reaching the end zone on his return of the interception, Warner is a two-time Super Bowl MVP today.

He would have been on David Letterman’s show Monday, and all sorts of new books about him would have hit the stores by the end of this month.

That’s how the ball bounces in sports.

Warner and Peyton Manning have one Super Bowl ring, but Warner’s 8-3 postseason record dwarfs Manning’s 7-8, and Warner has been to three Super Bowls to Manning’s one.

Would Manning have taken this year’s Arizona team to the Super Bowl? We’ll never know. But we know he has played for several Indianapolis teams that were superior to the ‘08 Cardinals and didn’t get to the big game.

A 1-2 record in Super Bowls isn’t remarkable, but Warner didn’t wilt in any of them. He did quite the opposite with the three top passing-yardage performances of all-time in the game.

The three most-prolific games for passing yardage have come from the same player, on two different teams. That alone says go directly to the Pro Football Hall of Fame five years after retirement.

The most total passing yardage (1,156) in Super Bowls is Warner’s. He had three starts. Joe Montana had four. John Elway had five.

In Warner’s two Super Bowl losses, his teams scored a total of four fourth-quarter touchdowns. They lost on a last-second 48-yard field goal to New England seven years ago and on the straight-to-immortality touchdown catch by Santonio Holmes Sunday.

There was no “choke” by anyone in the most- pressurized football game on the planet, least of all the Arizona quarterback.

“When you come to this game,” Warner said, “you want to be part of the greatest game. I have been fortunate enough to be a part of three great Super Bowl games. I am definitely proud of it.”

Had Warner not played well, those wouldn’t be among the three most-memorable Super Bowls.

I’m in the camp of those who think Sunday’s was the best Super Bowl ever. You could never get a handle on it. Once a team looked like it established itself as the dominator, it started getting dominated.

The offenses and defenses of both squads had stellar moments. The game’s final several minutes were fantastic. Players on both sides rose to the challenge.

The NFL, which knows how to do everything else to rule the world, has somehow finally figured out how to have compelling championship games.

Now, will Warner come back for more football? Some say no. Some say he’s had enough, that his life beyond football is more compelling to him right now, with seven kids at home and his First Things First Foundation that requires time and energy.

Warner is a free agent, but it seems unimaginable he would start over with another team.

He’s doing the wise thing by not jumping to any emotional decision.

The Cardinals will be vilified by their fans if they don’t make a serious effort to re-sign Warner, and the money offered will probably be enormous.

Peter King of Sports Illustrated and NBC says he doesn’t think Warner can retire because he’s playing too well.

But it’s assumed athletes hang on as long as they can for the competition and the money.

Don’t assume Warner is one of them.

Hlas Column from the Super Bowl

James Harrison: Not the fastest 100-yard dash, but he'll take it

 

TAMPA, Fla. — He has worn No. 13 his entire NFL career to show his spirituality defies superstition, but Kurt Warner will forever be bewitched by Super Bowl ghosts.

Warner said last week that he has remained haunted by the last-second 20-17 loss his St. Louis Rams suffered against New England seven years ago.

But this 27-23 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday in Raymond James Stadium, this was worse.

The game was a beauty, easily, a worthy successor to last year’s New York Giants upset of New England, and then some.

But oh, how it will pain the quarterback from Cedar Rapids Regis, UNI and the Iowa Barnstormers, who came 35 seconds from putting a happy ending on one of sports’ great individual comeback tales.

Warner was Hall of Fame-great in the fourth-quarter, amassing 224 of his 377 passing yards and two of his three touchdown passes in the period. He helped bring the Arizona Cardinals back from a semi-catatonic state, back from a 20-7 hole Warner helped dig with the most ill-fated 1-yard pass in pro football history.

That toss, which Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison almost-impossibly returned 100 yards for a touchdown, was about to become little more than Super Bowl trivia as the longest scoring play ever in a Super Bowl. Or so it seemed.

With 2:37 left in the game, Warner hooked up with the great Larry Fitzgerald for a 64-yard touchdown to give the Cardinals a 23-20 lead, its first advantage of the day.

With Warner running a no-huddle offense and throwing 10 straight completions in one stretch, the Cardinals put three quarters of frustration in their rearview mirrors. They seemed on the cusp of finishing one of the most unlikely championship runs in American pro sports history.

But the Steelers then played like a franchise that has now won more Super Bowls (six) than any of the other 31 NFL teams.

Ben Roethlisberger, winner of two world titles at age 26, teamed with Santonio Holmes on a 40-yard pass to let Pittsburgh go for a touchdown instead of potential game-tying field goal, then hit Holmes two plays later for the game-winner with :35 to go.

Holmes, who admits he dealt drugs in Belle Glade, Fla., as a youth, got all 10 of his tiptoes in the back right corner of the end zone with the ball in his grasp.

He barely stuck a landing in fair territory that would have impressed Shawn Johnson.

Warner and the Arizona offense got the ball back with 29 seconds left, needing to take his team 77 yards to erase its 27-23 deficit. The Cardinals got to the Pittsburgh 44 with :15 and no timeouts remaining, then Warner was sacked and fumbled the ball away in the final few seconds.

They’ll talk about the Holmes touchdown catch, one of the biggest in — here comes a superlative again — Super Bowl lore. It sealed the game’s Most Valuable Player award for the third-year pro from Ohio State, and may have snatched it from Warner.

But just as big was the one 71-year-old Pittsburgh defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau called “the greatest single defensive play in Super Bowl history.”

Down 10-7, Arizona had a first-and-goal at the Steelers 1 with :18 left in the first-half. Out of timeouts, the Cardinals had no choice but to pass, then go for a field goal if they didn’t get a TD toss.

“I thought I had just 1-on-1 on the outside,” Warner said. “Anquan (Boldin) had broken free. James Harrison had stepped up like he was going to blitz and then he popped out. I wasn’t able to see him around my lineman.

“He made a great play, and a great play on top of not only the interception, but to get it all the way back for a touchdown.”

How no Cardinal could collar the lumbering 242-yard Harrison. The chances were there on the return that seemed to take forever. Even Warner had one, but got blocked off the scene before Harrison reached midfield.

Harrison finally landed on top of Arizona receiver Larry Fitzgerald for the final foot or two of pay dirt.

Instead of Arizona being ahead 14-10 or settling for a 10-10 halftime score, the Steelers led 17-7. It took the Cardinals until the fourth-quarter to regain the spark they had shown in the second period until Harrison’s heroics.

The game was reminiscent of that 2002 Super Bowl loss to the Patriots, when Warner’s Rams had fallen behind 17-3 only to tie the game late in the fourth quarter before losing on Adam Vinatieri’s last-second field goal.

But while Warner-to-Fitzgerald for that 64-yard score wasn’t like the 73-yarder Warner threw deep to Isaac Bruce in St. Louis’ 23-16 Super Bowl win over Tennessee nine years ago, the feeling in the stadium was sure similar.

It felt like Warner had again taken the other team’s best defensive shot, then brought home a win. Warner had 414 passing yards that day, 377 on this one.

He became the Super Bowl’s all-time passing leader (1,156 yards). He became the first quarterback with three 300-yard Super Bowls, and has the top three passing-yardage performances in the game’s annals. He tied Joe Montana’s mark for TD passes in Super Bowls, with 11.

He broke his own record for postseason passing yardage with 1,147. But the loss is what will be most-attached to Warner’s effort here.

The four personal fouls and 11 total penalties on the Cardinals? They’ll be forgotten footnotes. But Harrison’s pick and return will be shown on NFL Network and ESPN for decades to come.

“Unfortunately, we made too many mistakes,” Warner said.

The winning quarterback sought out Warner after the game to express his admiration.

“Kurt Warner is Kurt Warner,” Roethlisberger said. “I think he’s a phenomenal football player. He’s a heck of a competitor, and I told him that.

“His autobiography was the first one I ever read, so it was really an honor to play against him.”

Warner rewrote his personal football story this season. It was almost perfect. It was one yard from being so, in fact.

One yard, and 100.

SUPER BOWL JOURNAL: Warner Knows Who Springsteen Is, But Doesn’t Know His Music

Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, Patti Scialfa

TAMPA, Fla. — Maybe you want to make a reach that Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner and rock star Bruce Springsteen are kindred spirits, guys who have made it big in life but given back a lot to others who need it.

OK. But Warner couldn’t name a line from a Springsteen song if you spotted him a “Tramps like us …”

“I’m not really a music fan much at all,” Warner said Thursday morning, six hours before Springsteen and his E Street Band were to hold a press conference of their own here to tout their halftime show in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

“It’s not a knock on the Boss,” Warner said, at least knowing Springsteen’s nickname. “Bruce Springsteen and the band, they do a tremendous job. I’m just not a huge music fan. So I don’t listen to a lot of music. I don’t know a lot of songs.

“I know the name, and it’s kind of cool to have him performing at the Super Bowl, but I just don’t know a lot about his music.”

Whether Springsteen knows anything about Warner, we’ll find out this afternoon.

SUPER BOWL JOURNAL: Media Day Madness

The Tonight Show's "Ross the Intern" - No, I don't know him, either

Just a quick post from Tuesday’s Super Bowl Media Day at Raymond James Stadium. I’ll have more later in the day, and of a football bent. But let’s get some of the clown acts out of the way.

The guy you see pictured is Ross Matthews. I’m not a Jay Leno guy, so I don’t watch The Tonight Show. I will when Conan O’Brien gets the gig this spring. But apparently, Leno has this guy who he calls “Ross the Intern,” and Ross covers movie premieres, awards shows, wherever he can ask absurd, comedic questions.

Ross was here today with a pink football. Ross is openly gay, you see. 

Ross told Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Mike Gandy there are so many hand signals in football, and asked why there wasn’t one for “Half-off sale, one day only.”

“What kind of sales would be going on in a football game, seriously?” Gandy replied with a straight face.

That’s what I liked about the shenanigans here. Everyone knows Media Day brings out self-promoting goofballs, but the players didn’t seem to be content to play unwilling dupes, instead putting the goofballs on the spot.

When some creature from Spanish-speaking television network Telemundo named Karim Mendiburu challenged Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Nick Eason to dance to merengue music, Eason told him to produce the music.

Mendiburu did, and the 305-pound Eason danced with the man. In broad daylight. In front of a slew of other media. Without a trace of hesitation or embarrassment. Good for him.

Afterward, Mendiburu told the player “Now you’re prepared to win the championship.”

“What?” Eason replied. “That can’t help me win.”

I loved it, much as I loved Gandy’s retort to Ross the Intern about his dumb joke about a hand-signal for a half-off sale. They heard something foolish and pretended to take it seriously. They were funnier than the clowns.

The clowns sure did try hard, though. Maria Menounos of Access Hollywood — probably not the weeknight equivalent of “Face the Nation” — kept challenging players to name the judges on “American Idol,” or the names of the Jonas Brothers.

Dumb.

A Dallas radio station guy asked Arizona defensive lineman Kenny Iwebema, the rookie from the University of Iowa, if he could name the Roman numerals in Super Bowl 43. Iwebema immediately said “XLIII,” which was right, and the poor radio guy didn’t have much of a bit.

Not that he had one to start with.

The star players had their own booths on the edge of the Raymond James field, and it sounded like most of the questions they got were serious. Serious by sports standards, anyhow.

I’ll write about some of that for tonight’s Gazetteonline.com, Wednesday’s Gazette, and even the Hlog.

I’m off to the NBC press conference to hear the likes of John Madden, Bob Costas and Al Michaels.

SUPER BOWL JOURNAL: Warner for Secretary of State?

Norman Chad: A Warner follower and then some

Norman Chad is a funny writer.

OK, let’s alter that: Norman Chad writes funny stuff.

Ah, either one is right. And he’s fun to listen to on World Series of Poker telecasts on ESPN.

In his syndicated column this week, Chad predicts an Arizona Cardinals win in the Super Bowl. He predicted the Cardinals would get here before the 2008 season began.

He probably wasn’t serious, but so what?

In this week’s column: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/football/397428_chad26.html, Chad tells us what he thinks about the Cardinals and their quarterback. Here’s an excerpt:

I first saw Kurt Warner in 1999 and correctly identified him as a dome-dwelling, touchdown-tossing alien UFO. This is how much I believe in Kurt Warner: You want to fix the economy? Make Warner secretary of the treasury. You want world peace? Make Warner secretary of state. You want to walk on water? Make Warner cross the Mississippi after hopping on his back.

As for Warner himself, he was among a handful of Arizona players interviewed at the Cardinals’ team hotel Monday. Here’s what he said about his fan base in Iowa, and how important it is to him:

“My whole family is still back in Iowa. I love the people in Iowa, they have supported me from day one and it’s been kind of fun from that standpoint. Even though I didn’t necessarily play in Iowa, especially professionally other than arena football, I have a lot of fans there. It’s fun to go back. It’s fun to have something for them to cheer for. They don’t have a professional football team so I hope that wherever I go, they adopt my team and so we pick up some fans along the way. It always means a lot when you can impact a community in any way, shape, or form. For me to be able to do that over the years and have that interaction with the people there has been tremendous.”

SUPER BOWL JOURNAL: Tampa: The Hlog’s Home Away From Home

Life plays strange tricks. For instance, Howie Mandel is rich and famous, and we’re not.

Me, personally, it’s kind of weird that I keep going to Tampa over and over. I really wouldn’t mind mixing in a San Diego or a Seattle or a San Francisco or even a Sault Ste. Marie.

But no, it’s Tampa, Tampa, Tampa.

Not that there’s anything wrong with the place. The weather’s nice, it’s not all that hard to get around there, and it has a real nice pirate ship surrounded by a football stadium.

But variety would be nice, too.  Last March, I covered Drake in the NCAA men’s basketball tourney. Where did the Bulldogs go? Tampa. Which I had already experienced twice in the previous five years covering Outback Bowls.

There were eight possible first- and second-round sites for the NCAAs. I got Tampa. Again, not complaining, but Washington would have been nice, or Denver, or Anaheim. Omaha’s no Paris, but at least I could have driven there.

I was sick with bronchitis that trip, so it didn’t matter where I was.

Then came another Outback Bowl for the Hawkeyes, so I tacked on another week in Tampa in late December/early January. Hey, only an idiot would gripe about going to Florida during an Iowa winter. But why doesn’t the Big Ten spread its bowls around a little more instead of having three in the Orlando/Tampa region?

Now, The Gazette and Gazetteonline.com are sending me to Tampa for another week, this time for all the Super Bowl hoopla and the game itself. Again, no complaints whatsoever about getting a chance to thaw. Plus, as assignments go it’s not too shabby.

But I wish this year’s Super Bowl had been in next year’s site, Miami. Or the 2011 site, Arlington, Texas. Somewhere different.

On the other hand, it could have been in the 2012 Super Bowl location, Indianapolis. It’s not a winter getaway.

I covered a Super Bowl in Minneapolis in 1992. It didn’t exactly break up the winter blahs.

So Tampa is fine, thanks much.

With that drivel out of the way, on to more important stuff. This is your Gazetteonline.com home for Super Bowl updates this week. I know some of you think it will be Kurt Warner morning, noon and night.

True, my primary focus is Cedar Rapids-raised Warner. However, the Super Bowl is a tapestry of ten thousand sideshows. I hope to get knee-deep in at least, well, 2,679 of them.

Keep your distance, Dogg

In addition, I’ll be attending press conferences featuring the likes of Bob Costas, John Madden, Al Michaels, Faith Hill, John Legend and Bruce Springsteen. A Super Bowl site is where the rich and powerful converge to see, be seen, make money, and spend lots of it.

If it’s like the other three Super Bowls I’ve covered, I’ll bump into the big and the bizarre. And you’ll know about it.

Unless Snoop Dogg is involved, that is. He and I have unfinished business that began at my last Super Bowl.

No, it wasn’t a business transaction. I don’t trade in Mr. Dogg’s recreational substance of choice.

But it did involve a Snoop DeVille, an overagressive bodyguard, a tour bus, and my willingness to turn New Orleans’ French Quarter upside down in the name of justice.

Maybe you’d like to know more. If so, keep returning to the Hlog this week.

If not, just read about the football stuff. There will be plenty of that, too.