Sunday, January 18, 2009

Kurt Warner: Hall of Famer?

Well, I'll be damned.

Hell hath frozen over -- the Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl.

Sure, they're most likely going to get fucking massacred by Pittsburgh in Tampa in a couple of weeks, but this is a nice moment in the sun for a franchise that, despite playing in the middle of the desert, hasn't had many.

Sunday's win over Philadelphia was convincing, and though the Cards almost let this one slip away, they got it done when it counted.

Now, in the two weeks before they get marched out to the slaughter, it's high time we started talking about Kurt Warner's Hall of Fame credentials.

Yeah, he's married to a guy. And yeah, he wears mittens when he plays. But take a look at the numbers:

* He's taken three teams to the Super Bowl -- the Rams in 1999 and '01, and now the Cardinals. You know how many QBs have started for three Super Bowl teams? Nine. Staubach, Elway, Kelly, Montana, Bradshaw, Griese, Aikman, Brady, Tarkenton. And Warner will be the tenth in two weeks. What do the nine three-time starters have in common? All are in the Hall of Fame, or will be.

* He will become the second QB to start a Super Bowl for two different franchises. Kudos to you if you can guess the other one. The answer is in the comments.

* He has a career passer rating of 93.8. And while passer rating doesn't take into account two of Warner's career bugaboos (sacks and fumbles), he does rank fourth all-time in that category behind Hall of Famer Steve Young, future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning and Jessica Simpson's fuckdoll Tony Romo.

* His numbers are pretty good -- barring injury, he'll hit 30,000 passing yards next season (he's at 28,591 now). He should eclipse 200 TD passes next year (he's got 182). His regular-season record as a starter is 58-45. In the postseason, it's 8-2. He's won more playoff games than Peyton Manning.

Now, there are some knocks on him, for sure. He's only played a full slate of games three times in his career. Part of that was injury issues; another part was finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was run out of St. Louis in '03 in favor of Marc Bulger; he was Eli Manning's resident dickholder for the 2004 season; he nearly lost his job in Arizona to USC golden boy Matt Leinart. His numbers are bolstered by some great seasons mixed with some horrifically bad ones -- he was 0-8 as a starter in '02 and '03; and some respectable stats in 2005 and '06 cover up the fact that the Cardinals were shit (4-12) in the games he started.

However, he was an amazing story when he got his chance with the Rams, and he continues to be one at 37. Is he a Hall of Famer? I think he's got a real good shot.

1 comment:

  1. The answer to the question is Craig Morton. He took the Cowboys and Broncos to the Super Bowl, and was terrifically rancid in both of them.

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