When Brenda Warner visited the Green Bay Packers’ training camp in 1994 to watch her future husband perform, she overheard a fan refer to KURT WARNER as a “camp arm.”
Unaware of the meaning of the term, she shortly thereafter learned the fate of most “camp arms.” The Packers, with quarterbacks BRETT FAVRE, Mark Brunell and Ty Detmer also participating in that camp, cut Kurt from the team.
“He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t recruited out of high school. He only played a year in college,” Steve Mariucci, at that time Green Bay’s quarterback coach, told NFL Films in “A Football Life” episode about Kurt. “He didn’t get drafted, and he shouldn’t have been drafted because he wasn’t ready. He didn’t do enough to show us he belonged and for several years he didn’t belong.
“Eventually, he really belonged,” Mariucci said.
Kurt would get his opportunity, and that road eventually led to Canton and to this week’s Gold Jacket Spotlight.
Following his well-documented stints as a grocery store employee, as a member of the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League and in NFL Europe, the St. Louis Rams were willing to sign Kurt to a contract.
“What we thought we were signing was a fourth quarterback that could compete for the third quarterback job,” former Rams coach and future Pro Football Hall of Famer DICK VERMEIL acknowledged in the NFL Films documentary.
Kurt’s primary role in his initial season with the Rams, in 1998, was quarterback of the scout team.
Fulfilling his overarching mantra, “I expected to play well, I expected to lead my team and I expected to win,” Kurt performed his scout team duties so well that he was selected as MVP of that squad.
An integral part of Kurt’s development was under the direction of Rams offensive coordinator Mike Martz.
“There was a lot of time spent over who was going to be our backup quarterback. I knew that we had to stress him as much as we could. We had to take his face and put it into the fire and find out how he would respond,” Martz once said. “I was brutal with Kurt; more brutal with Kurt than any other player I have been with.”
Martz continued: “I think the one incident that happened in the preseason that told me, ‘This guy’s ready’ is, we’re in a run drill and the center snapped the ball and (the ball) didn’t come up to his hands. There’s a fumble, and the defense got it. I lit into Kurt for dropping the ball, and I knew he didn’t even touch the ball. I chewed him for about 20 or 30 seconds on the way back to the huddle. He never gave the guy up.
“He didn’t blink. It didn’t faze him. Great character and strength out of that moment. When that happened, I just felt he was going to be special.”
A devasting injury to Rams starting quarterback Trent Green thrust Kurt into the starting role, and he responded by confirming Martz’s belief in him.
Kurt became the first player in NFL history to throw three touchdown passes in each of his first three starts and guided the team to a 13-3 regular-season record.
Following the 1999 season, Kurt was named the NFL’s MVP and, after leading the Rams to the organization’s first Super Bowl victory (XXXIV), the former “camp arm” was named MVP of that championship game.
Two years later, Kurt earned a second league MVP award and led the Rams to a second appearance in the Super Bowl.
