QB Kurt Warner was ‘serious’ about an NFL return in 2018

Kurt Warner’s last appearance in the NFL came on Jan. 3, 2010. As a 38-year-old quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, a hit by the New Orleans Saints’ Bobby McCray took Warner out of the season finale and segued into his retirement.

He thought about a return in the coming years, but an opportunity never arose.

Plus, the timing wasn’t right for his family.

Apparently, those thoughts about making one more run haven’t gone away. During a visit with the St. Louis Cardinals’ broadcast booth on Monday night, Warner admitted he and his wife had serious conversations about him giving the NFL another try — this season.

Kurt Warner talking about how he entertained the idea of trying to play in 2018 pic.twitter.com/HjfzJjE7EF

— Patrick Daugherty (@RotoPat) May 8, 2018

Warner said Tuesday that he wasn’t joking.

“It was just me throwing it out there to a friend of mine who coaches, and just saying, ‘hey, I’m feeling good, I’m throwing the ball again. I think I can give you one more year if you need one in the process of what you’re doing,” Warner told Doug & Wolf on 98.7 FM Arizona’s Sports Station.

“I actually talked to my wife and she’s like, ‘it’d be a great story. Let’s do it.’ I think the coach was basically going, ‘I don’t think he’s serious — there’s no way he could be serious.’ It never went any farther than that. But I was serious.”

The Super Bowl XXXIV MVP, four-time Pro Bowler and Hall of Famer won a title with the 1999 St. Louis Rams and led the 2001 Rams and 2008 Cardinals to Super Bowl defeats.

A decade after his last Super Bowl appearance, he still feels like he can sling it.

With thoughts of making an improbable return as a 46-year-old, he truly wanted to see if he still had it as a starting quarterback.

“Maybe it would’ve taken it into a backup role if a team brought in a young guy and I played until that guy was ready,” Warner told Doug & Wolf. “Maybe. But that wasn’t the point. I don’t need to come back as a backup. If I was going to try to do it, I was going to try to go somewhere where they needed a guy for a year and they transitioned or just a veteran guy to try to lead an organization from that standpoint.

“It was such a pipe dream. I’m just saying I threw some stuff out there. It wasn’t really — we were never diving into it. They were never really asking me any questions. Like I said, I think they thought it was a joke more than anything,” he added. “It wasn’t idea of just coming back to be a part of something. Just really wanted to see if I could play again because I feel so good at my age.”

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