On January 3, 2009, the festive and joyful New Year's Day before the festive and joyfulness completely disappeared, the first round of the playoffs of the nfl 2008 season officially started, and the first appearance was the "Arizona Cardinals vs. Atlanta Falcons", which is also considered an offensive battle between new and old quarterbacks.

The Arizona Cardinals' leading quarterback is the greatest non-draft player in NFL history, Kurt Warner, no one.

Now everyone in the league knows Tom Brady's 199th pick draft myth, but in fact, before Brady, Kurt Warner's story was the real inspirational, and even fairy tales were dared to write like this, but they were staged in reality.

Warner, born in 1971, did not think he could become a quarterback in high school. He liked a wide receiver, but was promoted to a quarterback by a high school coach because of his super strong arm strength and the farthest pitching distance. He started his four-point health career in a confused manner.

Because the high school football team is mediocre, even though Warner performed well in high school, he still did not receive any trial invitations from top universities, and finally went to the University of Northern Iowa, which is unknown to the football team. However, Warner was not the main player in the university. He was always a substitute in the first four years. He did not wait for his own opportunity until the fifth year and was named the best player in the division that year.

However, the division where the University of Northern Iowa is located really has no highlights, and even scouts are too lazy to pay attention. In addition, after four years of substitute in college, Warner was buried like this. It was not surprising that he was unable to receive an invitation from the rookie training camp in the end, and the lively draft was not a surprise.

It was not until the 1994 season was about to open, the Green Bay Packers, who were looking for a third substitute quarterback, contacted Warner and invited him to come for a trial. Unfortunately, Warner did not get the recognition of the Green Bay Packers and was quickly swept out and the professional league gate was closed.

In order to support his family, Warner started working in a grocery store, specializing in placing goods, with an hourly salary of only $5.50. At the same time, Warner used his spare time to play in the Iowa Flying Tourist team, the Iowa Flying Tourist team, and returned to his alma mater, the University of Northern Iowa, as a team assistant coach, looking forward to getting the professional league trial opportunity again.

During his indoor football career from 1995 to 1997, Warner set a new high and re-entered the professional league's sight. Unfortunately, fate made another joke. Warner missed the Chicago Bears' trial opportunity because he was accidentally bitten by a spider during his honeymoon.

Forced to the point of being forced to go to Europe and signed the NFL European Expansion Team - this is just to develop the peripheral team established in the European market, but the contract stipulates that if his performance is excellent enough, he can get the opportunity to be recommended to the NFL training camp.

In just one season, Warner once again won attention with his performance and was eventually recommended to the St. Louis Rams for a trial.

This time, Warner seized the opportunity.

In 1998, Warner sat on the bench of the St. Louis Rams as the third substitute quarterback; in 1999, Warner won the recognition of head coach Dick-vermeil through his outstanding performance in offseason training camp and was promoted to a substitute quarterback. As a result, the original starting quarterback suffered a severe injury from a cruciate ligament torn in the preseason, and Warner was pushed to the starting position.

From then on, Warner's legendary career officially began, and it has been five years since he graduated from college.

In his first career game, Warner passed 309 yards and three touchdowns, led the team to defeat the Baltimore Ravens, and was elected the best player of the National League in the first week of the season. Then he became the first quarterback in NFL history to average at least three touchdowns in the first three games of his career. He finally made a perfect season debut with 4,353 yards passes and 41 touchdowns. With his excellent performance of the third-most touchdown in NFL history, he was elected as a regular season MVP without any suspense!

Back then, the St. Louis Rams offensive team led by Warner was hailed as "the greatest performance on the court"!

However, this is still not the end.

Warner made great progress to the Super Bowl, and defeated the Tennessee Titans who created the "Music City Miracle" back then, successfully won the Super Bowl championship, and set a new record for the Super Bowl with 414 yards of passing yards. He was successfully elected as the Super Bowl MVP. This is also the last player in NFL to be able to reach the Super Bowl in regular season MVP.

After that, the curse of the regular season MVP being destined to not win the Super Bowl championship was officially born!

If the story ends here, then this player, known as the greatest "Cinderella" in NFL history, is just a flash of shooting stars.

However, after that, in 2000 and 2001, Warner led the St. Louis Rams to the playoffs twice and returned to the Super Bowl stage in 2001. Unfortunately, he was unfortunately killed by the New England Patriots free kick led by Brady, missing his second Super Bowl championship.

In 2002 and 2003, Warner's starlight dimmed. After being laid off by the St. Louis Rams, he was signed by the New York Giants and became the mentor of the No. 1 pick Eli Manning, but New York Giants head coach Tom Coughlin believed that Warner's playing style for too long had been out of place with him, so he used Manning as the starting quarterback in advance.

Warner's starting record was five wins and two losses, while Manning Jr.'s starting record was one win and six losses. However, Coughlin still insisted on using Manning Jr., and Warner, who was unwilling to continue as a substitute, voluntarily gave up his second year contract. In the end, Warner found a position in the Arizona Cardinals.

From 2005 to 2008, Warner has been fighting against injuries for the past four seasons, and the starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals has also been changing. His contract with the Arizona Cardinals is also intermittent, and he may face a crisis of being swept out at all times.

It was not until this season that Warner's injury finally stabilized, completing the third new regular season of his career, and led the team to a record of nine wins and seven losses. He ranked first in the National League West Championship since 1975 and entered the playoffs again. The "Cinderella"'s career is still shining.

"The greatest non-draft player in history" is the best footnote to Warner, but the focus is not on "non-draft", but on "the greatest", because Warner is indeed a very, very outstanding quarterback.

This week, Warner is about to face the best offensive rookie of the season, Matt Ryan. The 2008 draft, Tanhua, showed his top touch in his first season of his career, with 3,440 yards of passes, 16 touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 61.1% pass success rate and 87.7 quarterback score. All the data were the only one among rookie quarterbacks, and he deserved to lead the Atlanta Falcons into the playoffs.

One is a legendary veteran, Warner, who is 37 years old this year, has experienced many vicissitudes.

One is a pink rookie, who is just 23 years old this year, is a fledgling man.

Especially considering Warner's career trajectory, whether he can continue his magical performance in the playoffs is also the biggest highlight.

It is worth mentioning that the Arizona Cardinals have never won any game in the playoffs before this season.
Chapter completed!