Kurt Warner clears the air on his desire to return to the NFL
Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner made headlines earlier this week when he indicated he could be interested in making a comeback more than eight year after he last played for the Arizona Cardinals.
During a Monday appearance in the St. Louis Cardinals’ broadcast booth, the 46-year-old Warner, who turns 47 in June, said he had spoken to an NFL coach about potentially returning for the upcoming season.
“I was actually ready to, for this coming season, I actually talked to a coach and my wife said, ‘Go for it, I think it would be great,'” he said. “So I actually talked to a coach about possibly doing it if they needed someone, but then they went out and signed somebody. I don’t think they thought I was serious. So I think we’re completely done now.”
After his comments sparked speculation regarding Warner’s plans for 2018, though, the retired quarterback took to Twitter on Tuesday to clarify what he was trying to say.
But first, he couldn’t help taking a shot at the media coverage of his remarks, tweeting, “Must be a REALLY slow news day….”
Later, he explained that he is not “dead set” on making a comeback. Rather, his exchange with the unnamed coach was nothing more than a conversation between friends.
“I simply mentioned that I had thrown a text to a coaching friend – saying 1 think I could give him 1 more yr if he needed me! This was not – I’m dead set on making a comeback… just friends having a convo!!” Warner wrote.
Appearing that same day on NFL Network’s “NFL Up to the Minute,” Warner said rumors of his potential comeback were unfounded.
“It was simply, there were a lot of teams that were needy of a quarterback this offseason and didn’t have anybody, didn’t have a vet, were probably going to go with the young guy,” Warner said, according to NFL.com. “So I reached out to a coaching friend of mine. I was in good shape. I was throwing the football again. I said, ‘you know what? I think I can give you one year if you need that. One-year bridge to the future. I’m your guy.'”
“But as I said, I don’t think he took me seriously,” he added. “They went out and signed a quarterback. That was the end of that deal. We were talking about it a little last night. I should have known that it was going to blow up into a full-fledged, real-life story when there really wasn’t that much to it.”
In 2015, Warner also hinted at returning to the NFL after Cardinals quarterbacks Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton went down with injuries. However, Warner never had any serious conversations with the team about a comeback.
Even if Warner never plays professional football again — and he probably won’t — he can take solace in knowing that he went from being an unknown prospect forced to play in the AFL to an NFL and Super Bowl MVP who eventually got inducted into the Hall of Fame.
But unless something extraordinary happens, the book is closed on Warner’s playing career.
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