Kurt Warner is a Retired American football quarterback. His time spent with the St. Louis Rams and the Arizona Cardinals will likely be the most memorable of his professional career. Warner, a real underdog, was an undrafted free agent at the outset of his career but eventually won the MVP award twice.
He was named Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, too. His narrative is widely regarded as one of the most heartwarming and motivational in NFL annals.
Early Life
On June 22, 1971, in Burlington, Iowa, the world welcomed Kurtis Eugene Warner into the world. In Cedar Rapids, where he went to high school, he showed promise as a young football standout. After finishing high school in 1989, he enrolled at the University of Iowa and joined the Panthers’ football team. Up until his senior year, he was the backup quarterback for his team. He was named the Gateway Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year after breaking into the starting lineup.
Initial Stage
Warner spent his first three years after high school playing college baseball for Northern Iowa. After that, he floundered for four years without a team to sign him. Next, the Green Bay Packers signed him in 1994, only to cut him before the season began. Kurt Warner got his break in 1998 with the Rams after playing in the Arena Football League for a while.
Even though he had been the team’s backup quarterback the previous year, he was promoted to the starting position and eventually led them to their first Super Bowl victory. He maintained his high level of performance throughout the rest of his career, which included a trip to the Super Bowl in 2008 with the Cardinals.
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Career
Warner did not have a stellar debut in the NFL. In the 1994 Draft, no team picked him up. After being accepted to Green Bay Packers training camp, he was subsequently cut. After Kurt was unable to secure a contract with a team, he settled for a $5.50 per hour position as a grocery store clerk in Cedar Falls.
Nonetheless, he stayed involved in professional football by taking a position as a graduate assistant coach at Northern Iowa. He joined the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League back in 1995. He rapidly rose to prominence and became one of the league’s top players, helping guide Iowa to two straight appearances in the Arena Bowl.
The success he had led the St. Louis Rams to sign Warner. After spending some time in the NFL Europe, Kurt returned to the States. When Warner first arrived in Northern Iowa, he was the backup quarterback.
His status as an undrafted player gives him a unique place in NFL history. He is the only player in NFL history to win both the NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP awards without being drafted. He also holds the record as the only quarterback in Super Bowl history who did not go in the first round of the draught.
A quarterback has never accomplished this in his first season as a starting quarterback before. Warner, the only football player in history to be inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Arena Football Hall of Fame, did so in 2017.
After the 1999 NFL Expansion Draft, Warner found himself in an unexpected position as the backup quarterback to Trent Green. With Green out for the season with an ACL injury, Warner finally got his shot at starting.
His play stunned everyone in the league. Overall, he completed 65.1% of his throws for 4,353 yards and 40 touchdowns. The Rams’ offense was so good that year that it was dubbed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” and the team won the Super Bowl. Kurt’s touchdown pass of 73 yards in overtime sealed the victory.
Warner agreed to a $47 million contract with the Rams in the year 2000. Warner suffered a broken hand midway through the season, but Trent Green stepped in, and the Rams set a new NFL record with 5,232 passing yards. Kurt again led the team to the Super Bowl in 2001, but this time they came away empty-handed. Nonetheless, he won the NFL MVP Award for the second time that year.
It was at the beginning of the 2002 season when Warner’s performance started to decline. Eventually, Marc Bulger took over as the starting quarterback after he was benched in 2003. After being cut by St. Louis, Kurt wasted no time in signing with the New York Giants.
With a yearly salary of $3 million, his deal was very lucrative. Unfortunately, Warner’s play did not improve, and a young Eli Manning was brought in as a replacement.
By 2005, he had made yet another transition, this time joining the Arizona Cardinals. Dennis Green, the team’s head coach, signed the new quarterback to a four million dollar one-year contract with high expectations. When Warner was called upon to start, he failed to impress, and after three games he was taken out of the lineup.
However, he was reinserted into the starting lineup and led the squad to a 38-28 victory over his former team, the Los Angeles Rams, with three touchdown passes and a quarterback rating of 115.9.
It was because of this that the Cardinals decided to sign him to a three-year extension at a cost of $18 million. His play remained steady for the next few years, and in 2008, he led the Cardinals to a trip to the Super Bowl. Warner retired in 2010 after taking a beating in 2009.
Networth
Kurt made a little over $60 million during his NFL career. Endorsements contributed significantly to his wealth. As of now, he is having a Networth of $30 million.
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Real Estate
Speculation began in 2013 that Warner had sold a house in the Paradise Valley area. Because of the high level of prosperity in this Phoenix suburb, he was able to sell the mansion for $2.5 million. The home is extremely lavish since it has seven bedrooms and more than 11,000 square feet of living area. A pool with a waterfall and a contemporary spiral staircase are two of the highlights.
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