Let’s all say it together now, “The Arizona Cardinals are in the super bowl!”  That’s right; the Bidwell family can finally say that they are on top of the NFC mountain.  What can such a crazy thing be linked too? Are the Cardinals just lucky?  Do they have divine power with Kurt Warner?  Close.

This brings us to the real question.  Is Warner a hall of famer?  Let’s discuss. 

The story begins with Warner bagging groceries, he than moves on to NFL Europe, than to the arena football league, than finally to the NFL.  Warner started his career by taking a terrible franchise in the St. Louis rams to the world’s biggest stage in the super bowl and it appears he may end his career by doing the same with the Arizona Cardinals.  Let’s consider some stats:   Warner has been the NFL MVP twice and the Super Bowl MVP once.  He is 4th all time on the list for passer rating all time behind Steve Young (HOF), Peyton Manning (soon to be HOF), and Tony Romo which probably won’t last.  If Warner decides to play one more year he’ll more than likely have more 30,000 yards in career passing.  Not too bad for a guy who was thrown in the trash by two different teams. He is also the leader in career passing yards per game with 259.

"That's right. Two different teams that no one expected anything from."

If Warner plays one more year and has another year that he’s capable of then he’ll be racing up the ladder in all time touchdown passes as well.  He sits in 37th place right now but with just 25 more he will pass hall of famer Terry Bradshaw.  Consider this if you’re going to argue that Kurt doesn’t deserve hall of fame status, Bradshaw had two more touchdowns than INT’s.  Warner is considerably better than that with 182 touchdowns to 114 interceptions.  Also consider that Warner is in the top ten in yards per game, passing yards career and passes completed in the super bowl after just playing in two.  No doubt that he will add to them numbers with greats like Fitzgerald, Boldin and Breaston at his disposal.  All this means is that he has been among the best in the biggest games, games where it really counts.  I know he’s been surrounded with great targets but weren’t most hall of famers?  Consider Steve Young, Joe Montana and even futures like Peyton Manning all have had hall of fame receivers at their disposal. 

Warner has taking two teams that no one expected anything from to the super bowl.  There is no doubt that he lifts the play of all those around him.  He takes teams that have some potential and pushes them to the limit.  Hall of fame status is for the best of the best and if you don't consider Warner in the mold than your sadly mistaken.  Lets hope the hall of fame voters look at the whole body of work and not the injured years.

He’ll now have three super bowls under his wing along with being a class act all around guy.  In a world filled with the T.O.’s of the world Warner is a shining light.

One last thing to consider is the story itself.  Joe Namath is in the hall of fame for his story.  Why not Kurt?


killer@sportymcbloggin.com