Football or no Football, He’s still Kurt Warner

WATCH: Kurt Warner’s  perspective on life after football

When Kurt Warner was asked if he’d be like other guys who retire from the NFL then change their minds five months later, it sounded like he’d had 2-3 concussion’s worth of reasons to say, “NO”. He admitted in the press conference that he’d probably miss the NFL after doing it for 12 years and after doing it according to one of the most unlikely pathways to professional sports. Warner is like the guy who never plays except that he did. He had odd jobs while playing Arena football and did time in the NFL Europe league that ultimately folded. He got on with the St. Louis Rams and stepped in when Trent Green was injured. Kurt Warner is one of the most unlikely of candidates for a pro career let alone the discussion of his belonging in the Hall-of-Fame someday. Yet and still, he’s become a pro’s pro – someone even the most elite NFL stars revere.

But when I listen to him, watch him and listen to others speak of him, he really does remind me of that guy who doesn’t play. Ask a room filled with 100 or more people how many of them played sports between youth, adolescence and young adulthood and the whole room will likely raise their hands. But ask that same group of people if they were the stars of their teams and you’ll be able to count on one hand the number of hands that remain in the air. The world is filled with people who scrap and claw their way to whatever success they experience. And let’s eliminate the scratching and clawing that takes advantage of others and breaks the law. I could cite those individuals but they don’t count. Illegality is a cheap brand of hard work if it’s hard work at all. Nevertheless, the fraternity of “Kurt Warners” is comprised of people who have to earn respect and sometimes have to leave the thing they love most to get it.

Football is like the Ike Turner of pastimes. It’s brutal to you but at times you love it just the same with the charm of its adrenaline filled Sunday afternoons. There’s an attractiveness distinctly associated with the harmony of  ambient crowd banter, whistles and crashing men adorned in protective, multi-fiber armor. But just as with the real Ike Turner, you’ve got to know when to leave and find confidence and contentedness with other aspects of life. Kurt Warner now turns his attention squarely upon his family. When I was in college competing for a spot in the playing rotation, I found writing as an outlet as a member of the school newspaper. I started volunteering at church. It didn’t happen overnight, but I learned a Kurt Warner lesson – that you can’t be a slave to a sport or something you’ve always dreamed of doing. There’s nothing more insane than being dominated by an addiction, an obsession, an idol. We’re created to be better than that during the 86,400 seconds of every day. I get the sense that the only difference between Kurt Warner 12 years ago and Kurt Warner today is that his pockets are a bit deeper. I’m confident he’ll look to the next 12 years with optimism and most importantly faith in Christ to lead him to new avenues that may make the NFL pale in comparison. How about you? Are you willing to have your life defined by more than a singular goal that may or may not come to fruition? Will you search for those places inside and outside of the daily grind to add value to the world around you?