the    sides

I gotta be honest…Kurt Warner’s retirement bums me out a bit. He has played outstanding football the last two years, resurrected his career again in Arizona, and once again took a laughable franchise and made them formidable. You know the numbers right? 1 Ring, 3 Super Bowls, 2 MVPs, top three passing yards games in Super Bowl history.

Did you know that he and has family have a tradition that when they go out to eat, they pick out another family in the restaurant and pay for their meal? True story – his family was eating out during Super Bowl week last year and they picked this family, paid for their meal. Soon afterward, a very large black man came over to Kurt and said “I can’t believe you’ve done this. You are so gracious. I really look forward to playing you on Sunday.” He was a player on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The point I’m trying to make is this – it’s not just about the system, people matter. Can you imagine the state of the Arizona Cardinals without Warner? Leinart running that same team is a complete disaster. The Cardinals become the Seahawks without Warner and unless something major happens between now and the draft – like say McNabb moving in – the Cardinals can enjoy the bottom of the NFC West again.

And Warner did this with two franchises – made them better because he was there. There is a certain coach in Denver that I hope gets this — the system will only be as good as the players in it. And the same is true for any organization. The system is only as good as the people.

I’ll miss Kurt. He was one heck of a competitor.