For ... like ... six weeks.
Warner knew, going into that season, he was going to be the short-time placeholder for Eli Manning.
I think the Giants were like 5-4 with Warner when Coughlin found his excuse to put Manning in.
Again ... in my opinion ... part of Warner's HOF credentials is that he fought back from the low moments ... getting the ill-advised bum's rush out of St. Louis ... taking it in the shorts from Coughlin ... sitting for awhile behind another Everybody's All-America in Matt Leinart in Arizona ... to once again stand on the sideline of a Super Bowl having done all he could do to put his team in position to win it.
The Arizona Cardinals, no less.
Ask yourself ... how many other players would have taken those public humiliations with the grace Warner did - and kept fighting? Most would have flipped the world the bird and gone on home and counted their money.
Peter King can talk all he wants about the 'doughnut hole.' The things Kurt Warner put around that 'doughnut hole' are what truly matters about his story.
Make no mistake - I am an unapologetic, flag-waving Kurt Warner homer.
But I don't think I'm going too far out on the limb by saying ... the man belongs in Canton.
Martz? Yeah ... Martz was an innovator. His problem, imo, was that he could never adjust when the league caught up to what he was doing. He was getting his quarterbacks hammered. Every year. Warner. Bulger. Kitna. Who am I forgetting? Cutler? I don't know. I lost track of his stops.
The greatest coaches aren't necessarily the ones that create new. They are most often the ones who adapt and change.
Again ... imo.
