Super Bowl 50: Top 15 quarterback performances of all-time
By John Buhler
10. Kurt Warner, St. Louis Rams, Super Bowl XXXIV
Was the a more improbable Super Bowl Champion than the 1999 St. Louis Rams? At the start of the season, starting quarterback Trent Green suffered a gruesome injury and had to miss the rest of the campaign. Enter Kurt Warner, a former quarterback in the Arena Football League for the Iowa Barnstormers, and the rest is history.
Warner took the league by storm in 1999 en route to the Rams’ only Super Bowl victory to date. Directing The Greatest Show on Turf, Warner guided the Rams over the ultra-physical, newly-rebranded AFC Champion Tennessee Titans. The Rams topped the Titans, 23-16, as linebacker Mike Jones tackled wideout Kevin Dyson “one-yard short” of tying the game up at the end of regulation.
Warner went on to win NFL and Super Bowl MVP honors that season. He threw for 414 yards, completing 24 of his 45 passes for two touchdowns and no interceptions. Essentially, the Titans defense had no answer for The Greatest Show on Turf in the Georgia Dome that Sunday.
This will be the spotlight game that gets Warner into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He went to four Pro Bowls, won NFL MVP twice, and has his number retired by the two organizations he led to Super Bowls (Rams twice, Arizona Cardinals).
Warner didn’t have the longest NFL career, but all he seemed to do in the National Football League was win in the NFC Playoffs. He’ll join former teammate Marshall Faulk in Canton in the not-so-distant future.
Next: 9. Super Bowl XXVII