Like most people, I receive many emails every day on a variety of topics.
The truth is that there is just not enough time in a day to read them all.
However, I recently received an email about Kurt Warner that I wanted to
share with you. Lots of “false” versions are around the net. This is the
true story, far better than the embellishments.
Kurt Warner, quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, has already won a Super
Bowl with the St. Louis Rams in 2000 Now all these years later, Kurt Warner
is back in the Super Bowl tomorrow with the Arizona Cardinals. He is such a
strong born-again Christian and such a great guy that I will join many
others in rooting for him to win the Lombardi trophy.
NFL quarterback Kurt Warner married the mother of two children, one of whom
which had severe medical problems. Kurt and Brenda met in 1992 at a country
bar while he was Northern Iowa University’s starting quarterback. The next
morning, Kurt brought Brenda roses and wanted to meet her youngsters he’d
learned about the night before.
The Warners’ was a lengthy courtship. They married nearly five years after
their first date. Brenda (who is four years older than Kurt) had two
children by a previous marriage. Zachary is three years older than his
sister, Jesse Jo. Zachary Warner (born in 1989) was a perfectly healthy
infant. When he was four months old, his father dropped him, and in the
blink of an eye, this previously healthy baby was suddenly clinging to life,
his grip slipping fast. He suffered severe brain damage, and both of his
retinas were ruptured. At the time, few thought Zachary would live, and
fewer still held out any hope he would ever see, sit up, read, walk, or
talk. An inability to come to terms with the injuries he’d visited upon his
son led to the breakup of his marriage to Brenda. He left her when she was
eight months pregnant with Jesse
Zachary’s recovery has been long and arduous, but he now walks and talks.
Though still legally blind, he can make out colors and shapes. After the
Rams victory in the NFC Championship game in 2000, 10-year-old Zachary
presented Kurt with a homemade card done in Rams blue and gold. Inside, in
childlike scrawl, it read: “You’re as good a dad as you are a quarterback!”
Kurt adopted Zachary and Jesse after his wedding to Brenda in 1997. The
Warners have since added five more children to their brood: Kade in 1998,
Jada in 2001, Elijah in 2003, and twins Sienna and Sierra in 2005.
The Warner’s have overcome incredible odds to be where they are today.
(1) Kurt endured heartbreak trying to get into the NFL. So many of our
gridiron heroes go in as highly touted draft picks. Not Kurt, from a small
university. Kurt tried out as a free agent with the Green Bay Packers in
1994, was signed, and then cut by them that same year. He earned money by
packing groceries at a local Iowa supermarket.
(2) Early in 1997 he had a tryout scheduled with the Chicago Bears. But on
his honeymoon a venomous spider bit him on his throwing elbow. Another
opportunity missed, so instead he played in the Arena and European leagues
before finally being taken on by the Rams in 1997 as their third-string
quarterback. In 1999 he stepped in during the preseason in place of injured
Trent Green and began almost immediately to rewrite Rams’ history.
(3) Brenda battled to make a life for herself and her two children after her
first husband deserted her. This former Marine had to return to her parents’
home when she was eight months pregnant with her second child and with a
brain-damaged child already in tow. She completed her nursing training
during this period, getting by with the help of food stamps and student
loans.
(4) Another shock was the death of Brenda’s parents in Mountain View,
Arkansas, in a tornado in 1996. They’d retired there just a year earlier.
Although he was raised a Catholic, Kurt dates his spiritual rebirth to
Christianity to those dark days in the wake of the deaths of Brenda’s
parents.
In his Super Bowl XXXIV victory over the Tennessee Titans, Kurt passed for a
record 414 yards. He was named that contest’s Most Valuable Player. This new
mark topped the previous record of 357 yards set by San Francisco’s Joe
Montana in Super Bowl XXIII, and capped an astounding 4,353-yard,
41-touchdown regular season that won him league MVP honors as well.
In Super Bowl XXXVI, Kurt Warner led the St. Louis Rams in their quest for
another victory; although they came up just short. And now, 2009 and with
another team, Kurt Warner is already the stuff of legends.
Deservedly.
[adapted from Barbara “it’s a warner-ful life” Mikkelson]
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
“Jesus knows me, this I love”