Kurt Warner — who lead the Arizona Cardinals to Super Bowl XLIII only to lose to the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers — toyed with the idea of retirement during the offseason. But now, Warner has told the Arizona Republic that he will likely return to the NFL next year.
Since Warner is 37 years old and lost the Super Bowl, he wondered if he should retire. His contract with the Cardinals is practically up; he will become a free agent on February 27th. Before last season, he said he planned to play two more years in the NFL before retiring. But added to that statement after the Super Bowl, saying giving the Steelers their sixth Vince Lombardi trophy made him sit back, talk to God, and ask him, "Should I return to the NFL next year?"
"Any time you are in your thirties and you finish a season where you have that long of a year going through the Super Bowl, you always want to take a second to take a deep breath and digest where you're at and make sure you are doing it for the right reasons," Mark Bartelstein, Warner's agent, told the Chicago Sun Times.
Bartelstein has also been quoted as saying, ""He (Warner) loves to play. He loves to compete and obviously he's still one of the premier quarterbacks in the NFL" and Warner "wants to play, for sure."
"I am leaning in that direction (to come back)," Warner, 37, told The Republic via text message. "Not sure I have made a definitive decision yet."
If he does come back, which is likely, he is expected to return the the Cardinals. The Cardinals have already made him an offer. Bartelstein said on this, "We're not going to fool anybody. He'd like to stay in Arizona. That would be his first choice. But he owes it to himself and his family to have an open mind. If we can get a deal done with the Cardinals, great. If not, then obviously you've got to look at free agency."
It seems as though we can expect another year of Warner and another year of Arizona's explosive offensive, but can Warner bring the team back to the Super Bowl and win it?
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