Interview with Kurt Warner
Tom Ando
Monday September 3, 2001
What was your favorite part of playing arena football?
“I just think my favorite part was the speed of the game; how fast it moves; how quick you have to make decisions; how many points you score. It’s just an offensive game and built around the quarterbacks so it just made it a perfect game for that position.”
What do you think of the NFL’s option to buy 49.9% of the AFL?
“I think it’s a good deal. I think that the league is doing well. I thought for a long time and I still think that the biggest thing that the Arena League needs is just publicity, and I think with the NFL getting involved that it gets a lot of money and a lot of opportunities for publicity. I think once you see a game, once you go to a game, you just fall in love with it because it’s such a great game, high-paced, fast, exciting football that I think you just need to get that chance to see it. I think with the NFL being a large part of it and obviously making a big commitment to it that it will get a chance to get that publicity. I think it’ll just expand from there.”
How did “Kurt Warner’s Arena Football Unleashed” come about?
“The game was a great game and I love to play the Arena game. There are a lot of guys out there that are hoping to get an opportunity like I got, so any chance that I get to promote Arena Football – to give other guys an opportunity to move up to the next level – I want to take advantage of it. I could have done a bunch of NFL games, but I thought the Arena game was a unique opportunity to link my name again to the Arena game and to kind of show a little bit what the Arena game is about. I never heard of an Arena Football video game before so I thought it was a great opportunity for both sides.”
Do you believe that the AFL is a good place for quarterbacks to develop their skills?
“Oh, definitely. The biggest thing about playing quarterback is making good, quick decisions and being able to react to what you see. The Arena League game happens so fast. When you get down towards the end zone everything’s so condensed that you have to make quick decisions, you have to make good decisions and you have to be accurate. To me those are the key components to playing quarterback, so I think that is the most prominent position that can really gain a lot to play in the arena league.
What did you think of the numbers Aaron Garcia put up this season?
“He’s been phenomenal since he took over that team when I was there. He’s just done a great job and I’ve enjoyed watching him. I know Aaron a little bit and he’s fun. I try to watch as many games as I can to see how he plays, and he played tremendous this year, topping all the records that he broke the year before.”
How much did it mean to you when the Barnstormers retired your jersey last May?
“It mean a lot, that was special to know that what I did in just my three years there and also what I have helped do for not only the Barnstormers, but the league in general. I cherish the opportunity that I had there. The chance to kind of bring the Arena League with me and let people know that it is a great game and it was a big tool for me to get to the point that I’m at. It was a very exciting moment to have my jersey retired and hung up there, because it was such a big part of my career and my life. And to know that people appreciate not only what I did on the field, but appreciate more what I helped to do for the league and what I helped bring to the league.”
Has Charles Wang ever talked to you about being on the “Exempt” roster?
“No, nobody’s ever talked to me about that. Who knows? Maybe someday I’ll be back playing Arena Football, but hopefully that’s a little ways down the road. And if I ever get the chance, I would love to play again, it was such a fun game, but I guess we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.”
If the AFL and NFL paid the same, which would you rather play?
“Oh, wow. I think a lot of it would depend on where the two were at. The thing about the NFL is, as many great players as there are in the arena league, I think when you’re playing in the NFL, you’re playing against the best players in the world, and that’s what the NFL brings to the table. The thing that I love to do is compete against the best and to be known as one of the best at what I do. Obviously right now that would be in the NFL. If both leagues were exactly the same in money, in prestige, in all that stuff, that would be a tough decision, I don’t know. I really, really, love my ties in Arena Football, it would be a really hard decision to make if I had to chose one over the other, because they’re both great games and I love to play the game of football and I can’t really tell you for sure. If they were all the same and everything, one doesn’t really outweigh the other. I really enjoy both of them so it would hard for me to answer that question.”
What bit of advice would you give to any AFL or NFL Europe players out there that are trying to make it?
“Just to keep going and to be ready when your opportunity arrives, because I think that’s the biggest thing. There are a lot of talented players in the Arena League, a lot of talented players in NFL Europe, and other leagues that are out there. The key is to be ready – to take advantage of the opportunity when it’s there. A lot of guys only get a small window of opportunity when they get picked up by an NFL team. If you don’t make if happen quickly, sometimes you don’t get another shot. The only thing I would say to those guys is continue to work and as soon as the opportunity presents itself, be ready because if you can make an impact in a short period of time, you can stay around for a long time. I was fortunate enough to do that, when they gave me my opportunity, I took advantage of it and I’ve been able to stick, and I think that’s what a lot of those guys in the other leagues need is just a perfect opportunity and just jump on it and take advantage of it.”
How closely do you follow the AFL?
“I try to follow it as much as I can. Saturday nights I try to watch as many games as I can. I still talk to a couple friends of mine that are with the coaching staff of the Dragons to see how they’re doing each and every week. So I try to follow it as much as I can, but with St. Louis not having a team, they don’t really carry it in the papers that much, but whenever there’s a game on, whenever I can catch it, whenever I can talk to somebody about it, I do, and I try to follow. There are still a lot of people that I know that are playing in the Arena League. I watched the championship game, and Clint Doelzel was playing when I was there, Andy Kelly and those guys, so it was fun to watch that game. So as much as I possibly can, I watch it.”
Are there any players in the AFL that you believe have what it takes to make it in the NFL?
“It’s so hard to tell, I mean I think there’s a lot of great players in the Arena League and I think Aaron’s good, I think Clint’s very good, Andy Kelly’s done well, Kevin Swayne, who’s obviously played with the Dragons I think is very good, now he’s signed with the Jets, Mike Horacek who played a few years ago I thought was a very good receiver. I think there are a lot of good players out there, it’s just a matter of getting an opportunity and being able to fit into the system, so it’s hard to really pick out guys and say ‘I think this guy would definitely be good in the NFL,’ because you don’t know for sure. But I think there are a lot of talented guys leaning in the right place at the right time and the right system that can be very, very good.”
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
