by Jesse Florea

The defense digs in at the line of scrimmage as the offensive players break the huddle.

The quarterback looks over the defense and smiles. He’s played and beaten this team before. This play will work perfectly, he thinks.

“Hike,” he shouts as he grabs the ball and drops back to pass, watching his favorite receiver the whole way.

The receiver fakes a short inside route, then turns upfield and starts sprinting. The quarterback launches a long pass that looks like it’s going over the receiver’s head. But at the last moment, the receiver stretches out and makes a fingertip catch in the end zone.

Touchdown! Kurt Warner scores again.

Hold On!

“Wait!” you say. “Kurt Warner’s a quarterback—not a wide receiver. He doesn’t catch touchdown passes.”

And you’re right, he doesn’t catch touchdowns anymore.

Today, Kurt Warner throws touchdowns for the St. Louis Rams. In the last three seasons, he’s passed for more than 12,600 yards and completed nearly 100 touchdowns!

But when Kurt was your age, he was one of the best wide receivers in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

“When I first started playing football, it was for a flag football team at Jane Boyd Community Center,” Kurt says. “I was a wide receiver, and we didn’t lose a game for three straight years.”

It didn’t cost any money to play for the community center team. And that was good, because Kurt’s family didn’t have a lot of money.

Most of the kids in Cedar Rapids played for YMCA teams. Kurt and his teammates couldn’t afford those teams, so instead they got together at the community center and formed a football dynasty. From third through fifth grade, Kurt’s team never lost to any of the YMCA squads.

“I was pretty fast and pretty quick back then,” Kurt says. “And our quarterback, Adam Wright, could throw well. We had a lot of fun, but they didn’t like us too much around town.”

While other teams had matching uniforms and nice equipment, Kurt’s club was lucky if all their T-shirts were the same color. Kurt even wore the same pair of green jeans to school every day for about two years, causing the other kids to tease him and call him “Mr. Green Jeans.”

“When they made fun of me, I never paid any attention to it,” Kurt explains. “As a Christian kid, you need to understand who you are in Christ—not what you look like or the background you come from. You are a child of God. That sets you apart. It says: ‘I don’t care if I’m different;’ ‘I don’t care who makes fun of me;’ ‘I know who I am, because I’m a son or daughter of God.’ ”

Brotherly Bond

When other kids teased him, Kurt knew he could count on the support of his mom and older brother, Matt.

“We were each other’s biggest fans,” Kurt says about his relationship with Matt. “He was right there supporting and cheering for me, and I was excited about the successes he had.”

Matt excelled in school and played saxophone in the band. Kurt was a natural athlete. When Kurt brought home report cards filled with C’s, Matt’s marks were straight A’s. But Kurt could beat Matt on the family’s basketball hoop anytime.

“We both kind of looked up to each other,” Kurt says. “We competed in the things you’re supposed to compete in. But we never competed on trying to get more attention from Mom or to be her favorite.”

Kurt compares being in a family with playing football.

“I can’t go out there and say, ‘I want to throw for a bunch of yards and touchdowns, then I can leave happy,’ ” he says. “No, it’s about the team. You have to work as a unit and try to be the best you can be.”

And Kurt’s family was there for him when he came home crying after the first day of high school football practice his freshman year. That’s the day his coach told him he had to play quarterback.

“It definitely wasn’t what I wanted to do,” Kurt says. “I was a wide receiver and loved scoring touchdowns. I was upset because I thought I was pretty good at receiving. I had no idea what I could do as a quarterback. I was scared that I wasn’t going to be successful. But as soon as I got past being uncomfortable and scared, and just focused on what Coach wanted me to do, then I was able work at becoming pretty good in my new position.”

All-Pro Player

Kurt quickly proved he could be successful at his new position. His freshman team went undefeated and won the city championship. By the time Kurt graduated from high school, he was one of the best quarterbacks in the state.

While most professional quarterbacks go from college directly into the NFL, Kurt took a different—and much longer—route. He played for the University of Northern Iowa, but no professional teams picked him when he graduated. He tried to earn a spot with the Green Bay Packers, but was cut before the season started.

Kurt ended up going back to Iowa and working in a store putting items on shelves for $5.50 an hour. But he never lost faith in his ability to play quarterback.

“You can’t ever take your eyes off the prize,” Kurt explains. “That’s become one of my strengths in football, but I think it’s one of my strengths off the field. I’ve never allowed myself to take my eyes off of Jesus and what He’s got in store for me.”

Kurt ended up playing three seasons of Arena Football (where eight-player teams compete against each other inside small stadiums) and then played in NFL Europe.

In 1999 when Kurt finally got the chance to start in the NFL, he led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory and was named the Most Valuable Player. Kurt also won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player Award that year—an honor that he received again last season.

“I can say that a lot of the lessons I’ve learned and a lot of the character that I’ve developed came from those times when things didn’t play out exactly how I wanted them to,” Kurt says. “That’s when God showed me His plan or things that I needed to work on.

“When everything is going great and there’s nothing to complain about, those are the times when I lose sight of God. So I look back on those difficult times and realize that’s when I learned the most.”

	Q: What kind of animal has the most fleas? A: A flea-line. Carly R.,12, Ohio Clubhouse Jr. Click here to subscribe