Why Kurt Warner is a Hall-of-Famer!
Written by Marc Jenkins
The definition of a Hall-of-Fame player is one who competes at an exceptionally high level for a generous duration of their career in their respective sport. The player must display the ability to be amongst the best of their peers not only individually for multiple seasons but also compete at a championship level collectively with teammates. The player must be one of the best in their respective league or association for a few years or more and also leave their mark on the game in one solid way or another. Kurt Warner is a Hall-of-Fame quarterback and here is exactly why.
Kurt Warner’s Hall-of-Fame resume is loaded with reasons and examples why he should enter the hallowed doors in Canton, Ohio five years or so from now. First is the fact that he put up tremendous numbers during his 12-year career including 32,344 passing yards, 208 passing touchdowns, 2,666 pass completions, a completion percentage of 65.5% and a quarterback rating of 93.7.After being named the 12th best player in Arena Football League history (in just two years of playing) and a brief season in the NFL Europe League, Warner found his way into the NFL as a third string quarterback for the St. Louis Rams and was their starter just one year later.
During that magical 1999 season Kurt Warner led the Rams to a 13-3 record during the regular season and a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV. In the process Warner was named NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP and became the first player in league history to accomplish both in his first year as a starting player. He also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw 40 passing touchdowns and win a Super Bowl in the same season.
That wasn’t the only season Kurt Warner displayed his talent and was amongst the elite signal callers in the game; Warner was also named NFL MVP following the 2001 season also. Over the three-year span between 1999-2001 Warner was the orchestrator of “The Greatest Show on Turf” (St. Louis Rams offense) set an NFL record scoring at least 500 points in each of the seasons.
Throughout Warner’s entire career he produced, especially on the big stage. He owns the top three passing performances in Super Bowl history (414 yards in Super Bowl XXXIV, 377 yards in Super Bowl XLIII and 365 yards in Super Bowl XXXVI) and has the most total career passing yards in Super Bowl history (1,156 yards). He was also named to five Pro Bowls (1999-2001, 2008 and 2009), has the highest completion percentage in a single game (92.3% in 2009) and is the only starting quarterback that has never been shutout in a game in NFL history.
Warner also reached the milestones of 10,000 career passing yards and 30,000 career passing yards in the fewer games than any other quarterback on league history. More impressive is the fact that he is the only quarterback to pass for at least 100 touchdowns with two separate teams and only the second quarterback to start in a Super Bowl with two different teams (Craig Morton is the other). Kurt Warner’s most eye-raising feat maybe the fact that he holds the record for highest percentage of games in which he has thrown for at least 300 yards (41.9%, 52 of his 124 career games).
Kurt Warner has proven during the course of his career that he is one of the best to ever play the game and position. Could you imagine if he was given the opportunity to begin his NFL career directly after college and if he didn’t suffer as many injuries as he did? He might have wound up with numbers amongst the top five elite quarterbacks of all-time. That will forever remain an uncertain but what is completely evident is the fact that Kurt Warner is and one day will be a member of the Pro Football Hall-of-Fame.
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