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Warner sending mixed messages
By Dan Arkush
Oct. 8, 2008
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Kurt Warner
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There was an understandable stir on the national rumor front following an Internet report that Cardinals QB Kurt Warner sent a text message to his wife, Brenda, that he was ready to call it quits not long after teammate Anquan Boldin’s violent helmet-to-helmet collision at the tail end of the team’s ugly 56-35 Week Four loss to the Jets.
According to longtime team insiders, however, Brenda Warner has been pushing her husband to seriously consider retirement for the past 3-4 years.
When the local media asked Warner about the online report the day after his terrific bounce-back performance in the Cardinals’ convincing 41-17 victory over Buffalo — despite the absence of Boldin — the 37-year-old QB’s “mixed feelings” on the subject proved to be more than a little noteworthy.
On the one hand, although we hear the Boldin incident really did shake Warner up enough to consider leaving the game while his body was still in one piece, we also hear that he also has been privately champing at the bit for his Chicago-based agent, Mark Bartelstein, to resume discussions with GM Rod Graves for a new two-year contract that broke down late this past offseason.
Graves has indicated to team insiders that the Cardinals plan on holding off on contract discussions with any of their players until after the trading deadline at the end of the month.
Should the team and Bartelstein resume negotiations, we hear it’s likely they could become a bit sticky.
“The big question remains how you pay him, as a starter or a backup,” one insider told PFW. “It would seem playing-time incentives would be a key part of any deal.”
While it appears Warner’s grip on the starting job over former first-round draft pick Matt Leinart has never been more secure — with Warner being given more freedom to change plays at the line of scrimmage when he sees fit — there’s always the possibility Warner could come up with a real clinker, like his six-turnover debacle against the Jets, on any given week.
“He’s still good for a game like the one against the Jets at least once a month,” the insider said. “That’s been his m.o. forever.”
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