A dozen great years

WHEN I FIRST HEARD of Kurt Warner, he was a first-year starter for the St. Louis Rams and the Greatest Show on Turf. The Rams, who had recently been a down-and-out franchise (and are back there now) threw the ball all over the yard. They won a Super Bowl with Warner, and it appeared that Warner was a product of the offense built by coordinator (later head coach) Mike Martz.

A few years later, Warner wound up with another struggling franchise, the Arizona Cardinals, and Warner took them to a Super Bowl, too. And Martz, the former whiz-kid coach, was nowhere to be seen.

Along the way, Warner's come off as a great quarterback, a fine man and a terrific father. He's active in the community through his charitable organizations, and his humility makes him special.

Warner retired the other day after a 12-year career, and it's obvious now that Warner was the reason the Rams were great. The NY Times did a nice story about Warner and his retirement. Warner said he's as excited about the next 12 years as he was about the past dozen years; it'll be interesting to see what he'll do.

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MORE BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

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• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

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EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

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• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

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