Super Bowl win should send Kurt Warner to Canton

Super Bowl win should send Kurt Warner to Canton
February 1
New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers

"Kurt Warner's professional football journey began 14 years ago in training camp in Green Bay, where he was so far behind Brett Favre on the depth chart it was hard to find him.

Then, after putting up video game numbers in Iowa in the Arena League and in Amsterdam in NFL Europe, the former grocery-store clerk hit it big in St. Louis with MVPs and Super Bowls, but just as his rise to the NFL elite was sudden and dramatic, so was his fall, as he lost his starting job with the Rams and then the Giants and Cardinals.

One thing about Warner: He does not give up or go away. He starts today for the Cardinals in Super Bowl XLIII against the Steelers, his third trip to the biggest dance of all.

But is his amazing and unusual career with a huge hole in the middle good enough to get him into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton? He is eligible five years after he's finished playing which, considering he is 37 years old, figures to be within the next few seasons.

Warner's resume is unique, to say the least. If he wins the Super Bowl today and becomes the only quarterback to do it with two different teams, he is a guaranteed Hall of Famer, probably on the first ballot. Craig Morton, who lost Super Bowls with Dallas and Denver, had been the only quarterback to get there with two teams.

If Warner loses, however, then the struggles he had beginning in 2002 that didn't really get turned around until midway through the 2007 season put him on the wrong side of the front door in Canton unless he finds a way to win another Super Bowl before he retires.

That second victory is crucial. I believe Phil Simms would be in the Hall of Fame if he didn't get injured late in the 1990 season and was the quarterback instead of Jeff Hostetler when the Giants beat the Bills.

Joe Montana, the greatest quarterback in NFL history and a four-time Super Bowl winner, doesn't have a vote, but he endorsed Warner joining him in the Hall of Fame, win or lose tonight.

"Here's a guy that has probably done more than a lot of guys who are already in there," Montana told the Daily News.

In 1999, Warner came out of nowhere after Rams quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-ending knee injury in the preseason. Warner led St. Louis to a Super Bowl championship and was named league MVP and Super Bowl MVP."
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