Cards' Warner might be THE story of Super Bowl XLIII
Although the Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger is only 26, he will start his second Super Bowl on Feb. 1, and he has played well enough to already have been rewarded with a $102 million contract last off-season.
At 23, Roethlisberger became the youngest quarterback to win a Super Bowl when the Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks in XL.
Yet, Roethlisberger is the "other" quarterback in Super Bowl XLIII.
As well as Big Ben has played, especially in the postseason, where he as a 90.8 passer rating, he will be relegated to the back seat for the next 12 days, behind the Arizona Cardinals' Kurt Warner.
Warner also has won a Super Bowl, way back in XXXIV, nine years ago, when he led the St. Louis Rams over the Tennessee Titans and was voted the game's MVP to go with his pair of regular-season MVP awards.
What makes Warner such a big story, maybe the biggest of Super Bowl XLIII, is that at 37, he has risen from NFL purgatory to once again reach the Holy Grail.
Warner's 96.9 passer rating was the best in the NFC this season, as were his 30 TD passes. His 4,583 yards were more than anyone in the NFL except the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees.
All that came after five years of relative mediocrity.
After helping the Rams to a second Super Bowl in three years, when they were upset by the New England Patriots in XXXVI, Warner's rags-to-riches career, which began in Arena Football, was sidetracked.
In 2002, he started just six games because of two separate hand injuries. He started the season opener in '03 but suffered a concussion, lost the job to Marc Bulger and didn't play again until the season finale.
No longer a part of the Rams' plans, Warner signed with the New York Giants as an unrestricted free agent in 2004, started the first nine games and threw 6 TD passes and 4 picks before being replaced, permanently, by first-round pick Eli Manning.
"At that point I was disappointed," Warner said. "(But) I really hoped that because they gave me a chance to a start, and I played nine games and did some good things, that was going to give me enough of an opportunity for someone else to give me a chance."
The Bears could have been that team, but they let Warner know he would be coming in not to compete for the starting job but to play behind Rex Grossman.
The Cardinals were the right team.
"That was really what I was hoping," he said. "I was just looking for that one team that said, 'We still believe in Kurt Warner.' I'm fortunate they took a chance with me, and hopefully after four years it's paid off just a little bit."
It has paid off more than a little bit, but it took some time.
In 2005, his first year in the desert, Warner started 10 games but suffered groin and knee injuries. After a slow start in 2006, he was replaced by yet another first-round rookie, Matt Leinart, and the expectations were that that move would be permanent, too.
After all, in Warner's first two years with the Cardinals, he threw 17 TD passes and 14 interceptions, a far cry from his MVP days.
Leinart was given the starting job in 2007 but suffered a fractured collar bone early in the season, giving the job back to Warner, who flourished with 27 TD passes.
In the summer of 2008, Warner won the job from Leinart in training camp, and by leading the Cardinals to their first Super Bowl, he has opened a hot debate about whether his has been a Hall of Fame career.
For now, Warner is more concerned with what the long-dormant Cardinals have achieved because that's what he had in mind when he came to Arizona - that and the chance to be a starter.
"It's very satisfying to be a part of that," Warner said. "That's the reason I came here. I wanted to get back on the field and play, but I wanted to help this organization change the perception that people had of it. I wanted to help change the community, and it is a gratifying thing to be a part of that."
But what about the Hall of Fame?
"They can debate all they want," Warner said. "I'm just in the Super Bowl again. I like that."