Want These Guys’ Stories? Then You’ll Get Religion

You could look at Kurt Warner’s story and say that no one could make this stuff up. Except that someone did when he created Joe Hardy for “Damn Yankees.” In real life, though, there’s never been anyone in professional sports like Warner.

Former Detroit Tiger pitcher Mark “the Bird” Fidrych comes closest, having emerged from nowhere in 1976 to start in the All-Star game, finish with a 19-9 record and a league-leading 2.34 ERA and win American League rookie-of-the-year honors.

But as successful as he was (and as charming, talking to baseballs, manicuring the mound, shaking hands with teammates after exceptional defensive plays), he couldn’t lead the Tigers to better than a fifth-place finish in their division.

Warner?

If you’ve been paying attention this season, you probably know all about the St. Louis Ram quarterback by now.

Six years ago, having failed in a tryout with the Green Bay Packers, the former Northern Iowa quarterback was living with his wife and two children in the basement of his in-laws’ house in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and working for $5.50 an hour stocking groceries at the Hy-Vee store.

In 1998, having spent three seasons with the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena League and a summer with the Amsterdam Admirals in the NFL Europe, he was the Rams’ third-team quarterback and on his way to becoming, in horse racing terms, a claimer. When the Rams made him available last February in the expansion draft, the Cleveland Browns passed on him.

Eleven months later, after having thrown for 4,353 yards and 41 touchdowns--more than any other quarterback who ever played the game except Dan Marino--and becoming the NFL’s MVP, Warner will start in the Super Bowl.

Football analysts enumerate several reasons for Warner’s phenomenal success--a relatively weak schedule, the presence of a double-threat tailback in Marshall Faulk, a reliable bodyguard in left tackle Orlando Pace, fast receivers and a brilliant strategist in offensive coordinator Mike Martz.

I can think of one more: God is on his side.

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Uncomfortable yet?

Most reporters here are.

We go to Warner during interview sessions to ask about his life and recoil when he responds with his testimony as a born-again Christian. It’s not that he’s preaching. It’s just that his belief in God is such an important part of his life that he can’t not talk about it.

“If you’re writing about Kurt Warner or Isaac Bruce,” he says, referring to a Christian teammate, “our faith is who we are. So if you ask me who I am, I’m going to tell you about my faith.”

Upon hearing those words last week during an interview session at the Rams’ hotel, an inordinately agitated reporter marched over to wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim and asked him if would like to deliver a plug for Islam. Recognizing that he was being drawn into a Mohammed-versus-Jesus debate, Hakim wisely declined.

As someone who has worked in newspapers for more than three decades, I’ve never been convinced of the media’s so-called liberal bias. But when it comes to religion, particularly Christianity, there is an aversion among the sports media to consider its influence on people we cover.

That could be perceived as a double standard, considering the glee with which we report stories such as Phil Jackson’s spreading of sage in the locker room when he coached the Bulls to ward off evil spirits, and former catcher Mickey Tettleton’s claim that his home run surge in 1989 was directly related to his daily consumption of a popular cereal.

Isn’t it possible that prayer is as powerful as Froot Loops?

Warner has noticed how nervous the subject makes many reporters and believes he understands it.

“I’m not an authority on dealing with the media, so maybe I don’t know what I’m saying,” he says. “But I understand that writers have to remember that some readers are Christian and some people aren’t. So writers feel they have to stay neutral.”

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Good observation.

There are, however, other factors.

Sports reporters covering this year’s Super Bowl, for instance, are more wary than ever after last year’s Eugene Robinson affair.

On the night before Atlanta played Denver in Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami, the man called “the Prophet” by his Falcon teammates, because of his Bible-toting, scripture-quoting ministry, was arrested by an undercover vice cop for soliciting.

Nobody is judging Robinson here. Everybody encounters temptations. Warner said that when he played for Amsterdam, he literally ran through the red-light district en route to church on Sundays to avoid lustful thoughts. But episodes like Robinson’s tend to make the media more closely scrutinize the messenger.

Also, there are complex theological issues best explored outside the sports pages, by people other than sportswriters and athletes.

I’m still not sure what to make of the assertion last week by Bruce, a Ram wide receiver known as “the Reverend,” that he wasn’t killed in a recent automobile accident because he uttered the name “Jesus Christ” while his car was flipping.

He added that he believes Charlotte Hornet Bobby Phills wouldn’t have been killed and Kansas City Chief Derrick Thomas wouldn’t have been seriously injured in their recent accidents if they had done the same, as if “Jesus Christ” is a magical command, like “abracadabra.”

But the most compelling reason for avoiding the subject on the sports pages is the implication that God will intervene in the battle at hand, as if he cares who wins the Super Bowl.

From listening to Warner, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t believe that. His faith doesn’t guarantee a victory or even a good game. He threw three interceptions in the NFC championship game against Tampa Bay, one on his first pass. But he said that it does help him remain the same devout person today that he was when he was stocking groceries.

He knows that it’s up to him and his teammates whether they win today against the Tennessee Titans. God is on their side too.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.