Warner’s Big Day Removes All the Doubts

Next week the legend of Kurt Warner continues as he sets out to discover the cure for cancer.

Already able to beat the 49ers in a single performance, a feat considered otherwise unattainable for anyone playing for the Rams, Warner is now on the verge of being selected the NFL’s player of the century four games into his career as a starting quarterback.

In the kind of performance that made him a household name in Des Moines for the Iowa Barnstormers, Warner threw five touchdown passes Sunday to pound the 49ers, 42-20, before 65,872 in the Trans World Dome.

The victory ended the Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams’ losing streak of 17 games to San Francisco, and earned football’s very own Walter Mitty a smooch from Rams’ owner Georgia Frontiere.

Is that what they mean by the thrill of victory?

It’s all new and welcome to Warner, football’s feel-good story of the year, who received the emergency call to replace starter Trent Green, who was lost for the season because of a knee injury in the preseason.

“Everybody was scared about the quarterback position, and I mean everybody, except for Kurt,” said Ram defensive lineman D’Marco Farr. “When Trent went down you could just see the oxygen sucked out of this locker room. The only one who never changed his expression was Kurt.”

Twenty years from now, when football returns to Los Angeles, Kurt Warner will probably still stand tall as the patron saint to all NFL castaways, throwing 14 touchdown passes in his first four starts, more than anyone since the NFL began keeping such records, topping Mark Rypien (12) and Dan Marino (10).

It all makes sense, of course, in a season in which Philadelphia can defeat Dallas and Chicago can topple Minnesota. Without eyewitnesses, this would all be written off as fiction--the only unbeaten team in the NFL after five weeks being the St. Louis Rams.

Just as improbable, it is all being orchestrated by a guy who couldn’t start at Northern Iowa until his fifth year in college, was released by the Packers a year later during training camp and then worked in a grocery store at night to get by.

Has there ever been a more farfetched ode to determination than Warner, not only rejected by the NFL in 1994, but also deemed no good even for the Canadian Football League?

As the legend grows, they say now he was almost released by the Barnstormers before getting a grip on the indoor game and throwing for 183 touchdowns in three seasons. That’s tough to do even if afforded the chance to play against the 49er secondary every week.

He went to Europe to play for Amsterdam, leading the World League with 15 touchdown passes, before beating out Will Furrer to become the Rams’ No. 3 quarterback a year ago. He replaced Green with 11 pass attempts to his NFL credit, completing an unforgettable four.

“I didn’t expect him to play as well as he’s playing,” St. Louis Coach Dick Vermeil said. “I thought by the middle of the season he could start to step up and win some games for us. I didn’t expect him to do what he’s doing.

“And you know what he told me walking off the field today? He said, ‘You haven’t seen the best of it yet.’ ”

You can watch the Rams every week or wait for the dramatic made-for-TV movie, which will certainly focus on his decision to marry Brenda, four years his senior, a single mother with a brain-damaged child, who had been dropped by accident in a bathtub by her former husband.

This might be the first guy eligible to be selected for both Super Bowl MVP honors and the Humanitarian of the Year.

“Seven years ago, I was on food stamps,” Brenda told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch when asked about her husband’s NFL salary of $254,000. “We didn’t have enough money to go get Happy Meals.”

Four years ago Brenda’s parents were killed when a tornado destroyed their home in Arkansas, making perspective yet another staple in this fairytale-like story.

“A lot of people say all this is impossible, but as long as I have [God] on my side, everything is possible,” said Warner, who completed 20 of 23 passes for 323 yards Sunday, becoming the sixth quarterback in Ram history--along with Jim Everett, Vince Ferragamo (twice), Roman Gabriel, Norm Van Brocklin (twice) and Bob Waterfield--to throw for five touchdowns.

It helps throwing passes with Darnell Walker on defense for the 49ers. Ram wide receiver Isaac Bruce whipped Walker for three of his four touchdown catches en route to finishing with five receptions for 134 yards.

But this was Warner’s show, completing 15 consecutive passes at one point going back to last week’s game with Cincinnati, and staking St. Louis to a 28-17 advantage.

It took a 97-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by Ram wide receiver Tony Horne in the final moments of the third quarter to put the game away, but St. Louis is now averaging a San Francisco-like 35 points a game this season.

“You guys are going all the way, babe,” said Bill Walsh, the 49er president, as he hugged Vermeil after the game.

Wake up. Wake up. Come on, this must be a dream.