Kurt Warner Speaker & Booking Information

Kurt Warner is best known for his stint with the St. Louis Rams between the 1999 and 2001 NFL seasons, culminating in two MVP awards and a championship in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Warner's story is considered one of the most inspirational in the history of American sports. He grew up in an abusive family situation and, after years of anonymity and tribulation, he had a brief stint as a top flight NFL quarterback. Warner studied and played football at Regis High School (now Xavier High School) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and went on to do the same at University of Northern Iowa. During college, he met his future wife Brenda (who also grew up in an abusive family situation and had an abusive previous marriage), whom he married in 1997 and adopted her two children, son Zachary & daughter Jesse. Jesse attends the local high school in Scottsdale, Arizona, Saguaro high school They also have 5 children of their own: sons Elijah and Kade, daughter Jada, and twin girls Sierra Rose and Sienna Rae born in December 2005. Warner and Brenda are both born-again Christians.

After college, he attended the Green Bay Packers training camp in 1994, but was released from the team. Later he worked at the Cedar Falls Hy-Vee Food Store stocking shelves before being signed by the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League, in 1995. Warner was named to the AFL's All-Arena First Team in 1996 and 1997 as he led the Barnstormers to ArenaBowl appearances in both seasons.

Warner left the Barnstormers to sign with the NFL's St. Louis Rams in 1998, and was allocated to the Amsterdam Admirals of the NFL Europe.

Warner was the backup quarterback for the St. Louis Rams during the preseason of the 1999-2000 season. When the starting quarterback, Trent Green, was injured in the preseason, Warner took over as the starter. Ironically, coach Dick Vermeil was not very happy or confident about putting in Warner as the starter and would not have done so if the more experienced backup quarterback Paul Justin had not been injured. In fact, at a press conference, Vermeil said that he was hoping Warner could hold the team together and win a game or two while they waited for Justin to be ready to play. Of course, Warner proved Vermeil wrong about his concerns. The accurate-throwing Warner, running back Marshall Faulk, and wide receivers Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt were part of the high-scoring offense nicknamed "The Greatest Show on Turf." Warner's magical season, in which he tossed a staggering 41 touchdown passes, is regarded as one of the top seasons by a quarterback in NFL history. Warner became the symbol of the Rams' giant turn-around in 1999. The offense registered the first in a string of 3 consecutive 500 point seasons, an NFL record.

In the NFL playoffs, Warner led the St. Louis Rams to a Super Bowl XXXIV victory against the Tennessee Titans. He threw for a record 414 passing yards and 2 touchdowns, including a 73 yard touchdown strike to Bruce when the game was tied with just over 2 minutes to play. He was Super Bowl MVP in 1999, becoming one of the select few to win both the League MVP and Super Bowl MVP in the same year. The others are Bart Starr in 1966, Terry Bradshaw in 1978, Joe Montana in 1989, Emmitt Smith in 1993, Steve Young in 1994. Warner also set a Super Bowl record in the game by throwing 45 passes without a single interception.

Warner started the 2000 season red-hot, racking up 300 or more passing yards in each of his first 6 games (tying Steve Young's record) and posting 19 touchdown passes in that stretch. Also in 2000, former St. Louis Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz replaced the retired Dick Vermeil as Rams' head coach. Their relationship would start off warm (like that between Warner and Vermeil) and would remain that way for the next few years. Warner broke his hand and missed the middle of the 2000 campaign, but Trent Green was able to step in and the Warner/Green duo led the Rams to the highest team passing yard total in NFL history, with 5,232 net yards. Warner and Green's combined gross passing yard total was 5,492, which if held by only one, would easily surpass 5,084 yards, the single-season record set by Dan Marino. For the first time in his short career, though, Warner showed a disturbing tendency to lock onto receivers and force turnovers; he threw an interception in 5.2% of his passing attempts (18 int in 347 attempts). Still, an injured Warner was one of the most formidable passers in the NFL. Due to a very poor defensive unit, though, the Rams were eliminated from the playoffs in the Wild Card round despite one of the most productive offensive years by a team ever. In response to the poor defensive performance, nine of the Rams' eleven defensive starters would be cut during the offseason, as St. Louis reloaded for another Super Bowl run.

Warner quickly returned to form in the 2001 season. Though his season lagged behind his fantastic 1999, Warner still turned heads, amassing 36 TD passes and 4,800 passing yards, a total second only to Dan Marino all-time, but lacked the accuracy he showed in 1999 by throwing 22 interceptions. Warner led the "Greatest Show on Turf" to a 14-2 record and returned the Rams to the Super Bowl in 2002, though the team lost to the New England Patriots on a last-second Adam Vinatieri field goal. For the second time, he was named the league's Most Valuable Player, but fans will always look at Super Bowl XXXVI as the moment when Warner's career began to go downhill. Still, he had a fairly good performance in the game, throwing for 365 yards and a touchdown, with 2 interceptions, while also scoring a rushing touchdown on the ground. His 365 passing yards were the second highest total in Super Bowl history behind his own record in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Going into 2002, pundits felt that Warner's Super Bowl XXXVI loss was an aberration, but observers noticed a distinct loss of velocity on Warner's throws in the 2002 preseason. Warner went 0-6 as a starter to begin the regular season, again turning over the ball with interceptions on 5% of his passing attempts. On September 29, 2002, Warner broke his right pinkie finger, effectively ending his season. Having entered the year with a 103.4 career passer rating, Warner posted a minuscule 67.4 rating in 2002. Meanwhile, Warner's understudy, Marc Bulger, looked like the Warner of old: accurate, quick to read coverages, and deadly in the red zone.