It was a story that brought tears to your eyes and hope to your heart.
The kind of story that some TV director could make into a tear-jerking, three-hanky production.
Quarterback leads team to Super Bowl, then is relegated to the backup role. In a mid-season game two years later, his replacement struggles and the coach considers taking him out. But the Super Bowl quarterback talks him out of it and the starter comes around in the second half and leads the team to victory.
What if the team goes on and wins the Super Bowl? Can’t you see it now? The former Super Bowl quarterback standing on the sideline with tears running down his cheeks as the guy who took his job away from him sneaks over from the 1-yardline for the winning touchdown as the final second ticks off the clock.
Then the former Super Bowl quarterback runs onto the field and embraces the newest Super Bowl hero as the action freezes on the screen.
If that isn’t Hollywood drama, I don’t know what is.
If only it could happen that way.
Some of it already has.
Kurt Warner led the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl two years ago. Then injuries sidelined him for nine games a year ago. This season he started the first game, but was benched and replaced by Marc Bulger the next week, and hasn’t played since.
A month ago, Bulger was struggling in a game against the Chicago Bears. At halftime, coach Mike Martz thought about replacing him. But the backup quarterback, Warner, convinced him that it might be wiser to keep Bulger in the game. Martz didn’t make the change and Bulger rallied the Rams to victory in the second half.
After the game, a reporter asked Martz if he’d thought about a quarterback change and the coach related his halftime conversation with Warner. “Of course, it hit every newstand from here to Singapore,” Martz said this week.
Of course.
It was a fabulous story. How many quarterbacks are that selfless that they would more or less say to the coach, “I think he can do the job if you leave him in there and just let him play?”
What Hollywood wouldn’t do with a story line like that.
Trouble is, the details are a little hazy.
From listening to Martz this week, it’s not quite clear if Warner actually influenced his decision to keep Bulger in the game.
“In the second quarter, we were really struggling on offense and he (Bulger) just looked disjointed out there,” Martz said. “I’m sure I didn’t do a very good job of calling plays or helping him out, but at halftime I talked to Kurt about the possibility of maybe making a change in the third quarter and for him to be ready.”
Warner’s response, Martz said, was “I know what this guy’s going through. I’ve been there. I feel for him.”
I’ve read several accounts of what Warner said, but the essence of them all was, give the kid another chance.
“If you know Kurt, you understand that,” the coach said. “If you don’t know Kurt, you may not understand that. It was a completely unselfish remark on his part and did not diminish his desire or did not reflect on his lack of competitiveness or anything like that. That’s just the kind of guy he is.”
So maybe Martz had already made up his mind to keep Bulger in the game before he ever talked to Warner. That still doesn’t take away from what Warner said.
The issue isn’t whether Warner influenced Martz’s decision. The issue is, Warner was empathizing with Bulger. Supporting him, in a way. What a noble gesture. It’s not something you see every day. And when you do see it, you want to applaud it.
An act like that just might have a positive effect on a team. Whether it had anything to do with the Rams winning their next three games is hard to say. But the Rams don’t have a quarterback controvery and that’s got to make life easier.
Martz has certainly been able to live with his decision. “When you’re in the hunt and you’re trying to get into the playoffs and there’s a lot of pressure on you, can you bring a team back and put it in a position to win at the end of a game?” he asked rhetorically, referring to his quarterback. “He (Bulger) did that several weeks in a row, which in my mind is the true test of a quarterback. You can move that team and get it in the end zone. The bottom line is, this football team believes in Marc.”
With good reason. The Rams have won 16 of 19 games with Bulger starting, including a 10-2 mark this season.
They’ll try to make it 11-2 (and the overall season record 11-3) when they entertain the Seahawks Sunday in St. Louis.
Bulger acknowledges that he has a ways to go before he’s the quarterback he yearns to be.
“I have a lot more to see and a lot more to learn,” he said, “and who better to learn from than coach Martz and Kurt.”
Indeed.
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