Kurt Warner is my
favorite NFL player ever.
He had handled so
much adversity with class, maturity, and heck-grace!
His
well-published long road to starting quarterback and Super Bowl champion, being
demoted from starter time and again, criticism over his public expressions of
faith, being demoted from starter time and again, criticism over his wife’s comments
to the St. Louis media, criticism over his “toughness.”
He handled the criticism and adversity with class, never disparaging his teammates or coaches, and kept on plugging, traded first to the Giants and then to Arizona, retaking the starting job and leading the Arizona Cardinals, a perennial sad sack franchise, to their first Super Bowl appearance.
On so many
levels, he is a class act, and I think his on-the-field play warrants Hall of
Fame consideration.
But this post is
not about Kurt Warner. It is about his first nemesis.
Tom Brady.
As Kurt put it on
an ESPN special, the Rams-Patriots contest that year turned Tom Brady into TOM
BRADY.
I have never
forgiven Tom Brady for beating Warner in the Super Bowl (not to mention going
on to beat the Eagles, and then making me root for the Giants, not once-but
twice).
But after the
story broke this week about Brady’s contract extension, I have to begrudgingly
admit that Brady is one heckuva team player.
Now I do not want
to paint him as Mother Theresa-he is after all, a millionaire several times
over, and married to a wife with a pretty lucrative modeling career of her own.
I do not think they have to worry about how to fund college for little ones Ben
and Vivian.
But this is the
second time Brady took a considerable amount less on his market value to allow
the team owners more salary cap room to build a championship team around him.
After all, he is
certainly worth more than Drew Bress, who milked the Saints for every penny he
could.
You could argue
Brady should be the highest paid quarterback in the league...at $15 million, he’s
not in the top five for 2013.
Stafford,
Lions-$20.8M
Manning,
Giants-$20.4M
Manning,
Broncos-$20.0M
Brees,
Saints-$17.4M
Rivers,
Chargers-$17.1M
Since the
Patriots will undoubted spend the salary cap room saved on this renegotiation
in free agency, the Patriots, who looked pretty formidable in 2012 up until
facing the Ravens in the AFC Championship game.
So when Brady says (and he did this week), "I just want to win," you tend to believe him.
Not only do I
think the Patriots are still a dynasty...I would not bet against them to win it
all next year!
