13 great moments in Kurt Warner’s time as an Arizona Cardinal
Sep 8, 2014, 3:25 PM | Updated: 3:25 pm
The Arizona Cardinals signed two-time MVP Kurt Warner to a modest one-year contract worth $4 million on March 7, 2005.
Popular thinking was that Warner, then 34 years of age, was the latest in a long line of professionals in their twilight who would come to soak up the sun in Phoenix before riding off into the sunset. Popular thinking was wrong.
Warner helped turn around a perennially wretched franchise, even nearly delivering the Cardinals’ first Super Bowl championship in the process.
After hanging up his cleats following the 2009 season, Warner joined NFL Network as an analyst. Monday, he’ll be back at University of Phoenix Stadium when he’ll be honored with inclusion into the Cardinals Ring of Honor when the Cardinals host the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football.
In celebration of Warner becoming the latest member of the exclusive club, we take a look back at 13 great moments in Kurt Warner’s time as an Arizona Cardinal.
The Signing
After one forgettable season with the New York Giants that included Warner mentoring Eli Manning, who took over as the team’s starting quarterback in Week 10, the veteran found himself on the free agent market. The Cardinals, coming off a 6-10 campaign with Josh McCown as the starting quarterback, signed Warner to a one-year deal. It would be the first of three contracts he’d ink with the team.
As previously stated, there wasn’t many people that believed Warner would be able to recapture the magic he performed as the starting quarterback of the St. Louis Rams from 1999 to 2003. Warner himself was one of them.
“I still believe I can be a starter and play at an extremely high level in this league,” he said during his free agent visit to Arizona. That, of course, turned out to be a vast understatement.
First Touchdown Pass as a Cardinal
Warner would throw 116 touchdown passes (including the postseason) in a Cardinals uniform. Forty-eight of them would land in the hands of wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, starting with his very first one. The duo hooked up on a 1-yard scoring play in the third quarter of a season-opening 42-19 loss to the Giants at the Meadowlands.
First Win as Arizona’s starting quarterback
