THE ED MYLETT SHOW - The American Underdog w/ Kurt Warner

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Hollywood could not imagine a better UNDERDOG story than the one Kurt Warner has lived.  So, they went straight to the source and made a movie about Kurt’s incredible journey.   “AMERICAN UNDERDOG: THE KURT WARNER STORY” opens in theaters soon, and I’m thrilled to welcome Kurt this week so you can hear firsthand how he OVERCAME INCREDIBLE ODDS to live one of the most INSPIRATIONAL stories I’ve heard in a long time. After playing college football at Northern Iowa for four years, Kurt was undrafted and stocked shelves in a grocery store.  He eventually landed a spot on the Iowa Barnstormers in the Arena Football League before signing with the St. Louis Rams as a backup quarterback in 1998.  A year later, everything changed. Not only did he become a starter, during his first season, Kurt also led the Rams to a title in SUPER BOWL XXXIV and earned league and Super Bowl MVP honors.  He won another league MVP when the Rams returned to Super Bowl XXXVI.  After signing with the Cardinals, he led the team to their first Super Bowl appearance as well, making him the second quarterback in history to start the Super Bowl with two different teams.   When he retired, Kurt finished his career owning a dozen NFL RECORDS. With all the challenges he faced, if anyone had a right to have self-doubt, it was Kurt.   Did he have self-doubt?   ABSOLUTELY NOT!   As he explains, Kurt always believed in his talent, but how he approached that talent had to CHANGE before he found success. You’re also going to hear how stocking grocery store shelves helped Kurt create a path to the NFL.  It’s a story of how doing COMMON THINGS the right way can produce decidedly UNCOMMON RESULTS that you can use in your life as well. Kurt also gives you a masterclass on the importance of CONFIDENCE as an element of success, especially when you encounter inevitable setbacks. FAITH has always been a part of Kurt’s life, and we spend a good deal of time talking about how Kurt’s RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD has grown and changed over the years to become one of the things that define who he is.  We touch on how he has actively applied faith in good times and the bad and how he has STAYED TRUE TO HIS FAITH despite setbacks after his incredible accomplishments.  At this time of year, and in times like these, we need UPLIFTING stories to help us find JOY and PEACE. That’s why spending time listening to Kurt Warner’s story is a PERFECT GIFT you’ll want to give yourself and SHARE WITH OTHERS.

This is The End My Let's Show. All right, welcome back to the program, everybody. Today is one of the most inspiring, motivating stories you're ever going to hear in your life. In fact, I knew a lot about this man's story because I watched it as a fan. And I thought, you know what, this should be a movie someday. If I didn't know what really happened, it would be a really totally unbelievable movie. But it actually really happened. And the good news is, now it is a movie coming out on Christmas Day, American underdog. And it's about the man that's my guest today and the just absolutely incredible story of

Kurt Warner. So Kurt, walk into the program, brother. Thank you very much. I'm excited to be on as we were talking off air. My daughter's been a huge fan of your podcast and you for a long time. And so love that that we get a chance to connect. I'm so grateful she connected us as well. Let me give you guys some background. In case some of you don't know this, let me just paint a picture for you. What have I told you that the man I'm speaking to today is a two-time NFL MVP Super Bowl champion, NFL Hall of Famer, the quarterback of the greatest show on turf. And then I tell you that all of that was accomplished by somebody who did not even start in college until his senior year. And it wasn't exactly at Alabama, no offense. He was at Northern Iowa. So it's a good program, but it's not Notre Dame or Alabama anywhere like that.

And that person goes on to not get drafted into the NFL. It's cut a few different times. Has to go to NFL Europe, plays in the arena league, and that's the guy who produces the life in the career that I just described. It's mind boggling. When I read that back to you, Kurt, even for you now, as a Hall of Famer, does it still just shock you that this has happened

in your life? Well, I mean, obviously there's part of you when you're going through some of those steps to go, okay, you don't know what the future's gonna look like, but you definitely don't think it's gonna look like that, you know, much of the time. But by this ain't joking, and what I would say is that

when everybody else was looking at the guy that sat on the bench for four years, or the guy that was caught, or the guy that was working in a grocery store, what I was looking at is, okay, when I did play one year in college, I was the player of the year in my conference. When I played three years in a arena football,

we went to two championship games, and I was the best quarterback in the league for three years the same in NFL Europe so when everybody else was looking at the circumstances that surrounded me when I was looking at was what do I do when I've got a ball on my hands and so that to me is really what kept me going and that's really in my mind what defined me it was more I'm just not getting the opportunity nobody's ever showing me that I can't do it. So, there's nothing in my mind that's going to tell me I can't do it no matter what anybody says. The problem was, as there's a problem with, you know, a lot of people that you're going through life and you're just like, I just need that opportunity. Somebody give me that opportunity and I was fortunate that although it was a little later in the game and after going through some, some different obstacles, I was fortunate that although it was a little later in the game and after going through some different obstacles, I was given that opportunity and when given that opportunity,

I believe because I believe that stuff about myself, I was able to take that opportunity and one of it. Unbelievable description of it because I think people are listening to this right now. I'm just such a Christmas gift for my audience to have you. By the way, guys, I'm not a movie promoter. Go see the movie. It's somebody you can see with your children. And it's just, it's a true story, right?

But, you know, I have to say to everybody listening to this, if you have a dream in your life and right now you're just lost and nobody else sees it and it just doesn't seem to be clicking, Kurt Warner is a story that you've got to listen to. Stay to the end of today's show because we're going to go through all kinds of different circumstances that he had to face and what he was thinking when he went through them. Stay with us today because I think it's going to inspire you beyond belief. So I want to go back and get that. Because that sounded good what you said, right?

I get that. But you go, look, did you have self-doubt though, Kurt? I mean, like, you had a coach literally say to you, I'm watching the preview clip of the movie. By the way, the guys play in Mike Martz and Quaid and playing Vermilbert. This like spit and images of these guys, right? But I'm watching the clip and did you legitimately have a coach tell you one of your own coaches say to you, hey, you should be thinking about your post football life. You literally said this to you. Yeah, definitely, you know, Because there was different steps along the way

that as a kid, everybody has the dream, oh, I play football now, so I'm going to be an NFL superstar. And sometimes you need people to step into your life and go, dude, that's not in the cards for you. Now, you have to be realistic about where you're at. And once again, I don't know where he was at and what he was looking at when he said that. But, you know, when you add it, like you said, you're at a smaller school,

at that time, one AA school and Iowa. And you can't even get on the field, you know, sometimes it's like, dude, you know, get a, get a dose of realism right here. Like, I don't know why you think this is still going to happen for you. And I think that was the mindset was just, you're not doing the things you have to do in this moment to think that you're going to have a career in football. And a great story when I was in college. I remember being on the bench for those four years and I looked at myself and I thought,

I'm more talented than the guy in front of me like why can I not get on the field you know in college you have a spring game here there are different times when even the backups get a chance to compete and when I competed in those games I was like I was better than the guy in front of me so I really couldn't grasp why I couldn't get on the field and so I had a friend on the team that was a little bit older and had a better relationship with the coaches. And I just asked him, you mind just going to the coaches and just asking them, what am I missing? What am I not doing to get on the field and get this opportunity that I feel like I deserve? And I'll never remember him coming back to me and saying, well, the coaches said

you're not very good in practice. And, you know, my first month in your thought was kind of like Alan Iverson as we've all heard the rant. Like, I'm really going to talk to you about practice. Like, practice. Like, you're really good. But you're talking about practice. And that was my initial mindset. Like, we got to be kidding me.

That's just an excuse. But then the more I thought about it, the more I thought to myself, you know, 99% of, you know, the impression that we leave on people is in practice, you know, because especially when you talk about football and we play high school, you play 10 games, college maybe 11, NFL, 16 days a year, you give a chance to get under the lights and show people what you can do under the lights. We prove the people who we are in practice. I think I have seven kids myself. And so I can get up on my soapbox and preach to my kids when I'm passionate about something.

But there's no doubt that they take more from what I do on an everyday basis. How I let their mom, how I preach their siblings, how I go about my job is that it's not just about what I do in that one big moment, it's about what do I do every single day. And I never really thought about life that way. To me, it was like, oh, to the lights on it, I'm really good. I'm really good in that moment. But if nobody gets a chance to see that, or maybe more importantly, to me, it was the coaches going, why should we trust you like we don't see you doing anything on a daily basis that makes us say

oh let's give him the ball and let's let him lead our team and that was really the point in that flip in the movie of the coach saying that like dude I don't know what you think you're showing as a daily basis but it's not anything that's going to lead you to playing in the national football league, but that was a eye opening moment for me to go, gosh, that makes so much sense. That's a huge pleasure. Yeah, I gotta show my teammates

what they can expect for me every day in practice when we go into the weight room. I gotta let the coaches know when I show, for meetings or I show up for preparation, or even if I'm running a scout team, this is what you're going to get every time you see me. This is what you're going to get in, you know, the moments when nobody's watching and this is what you're going to get in the moments when everybody's watching and I never really, you know, looked at that way before that. I was one of the talented guys I could throw the football

Oh, yeah, just put me in the game and I'll show you. Yeah. And they were saying, no, show me now. Show me before you do in the game. And isn't that so true in every situation? I mean, any big time situation you're in, somebody's not just going to go, oh, here's the keys to the car. Let's see if you can drive it.

They want you to show them all the different things you're going to do behind the scenes to let them trust you by giving you the keys to the car. That is so good. You're making me think about things I don't like to admit, but that application of that's everywhere. It's in as a father, as a mother, as you said, it's in business. Obviously, the day-to-day stuff, but I was thinking, when my kids were younger, and we're going to talk about parenting, because I've actually adjusted a couple things I did as a dad

from things I read about you, and I want to get into that a little bit later. I mean, that's about as big a confidence I can give another man. Well, when my kids were little, I remember and I want all the parents just to know this. I was so busy in business, so wound up, so fired up, so focused that, you know, my day to day dad stuff, I don't know that I was as president as I need to be. So there'd be these big moments where, okay, it's Sunday after church, we're gonna go do this big thing,

and I thought I'd save the week, that I'd blew the entire week, but it's what you do moment by moment. It's that breakfast, it's driving them to school. Are you president, are you talking to them? So the application of that is so huge for me. I wanna go back a little bit and ask you about one moment because I pictured it.

So you get cut, and now you're at high V grocery store, I guess stocking shelves. This is just bananas when you think about this, right? You're there and you said earlier not to preach, but I'm wondering is that that you're stocking shelves, this is game over, man. Look, you didn't start until your last year. You're stocking shelves, you didn't make the team. Like this is like, if ever you're like, dude, wake up.

Was it, was it faith in that moment? Entering your life had that been present in your life because it's such a centerpiece of your life. What got you through? That's dark times. Not like, hey, your third string, you're on the scout team. But if the other number two guy gets hit, you know, you're going to come in and you're going to be at least number two on the, you weren't on any depth chart anywhere. You weren't even high on the high V depth chart. You're stuck. I ain't.

They forgot things. What got you through those times? You know, that's a great question. And you know, I'm not going to sit here and say that it was something, you know, really big in that moment. My fate wasn't at that time where it is now. Although I had fate in myself, I believe God had a plan for me, but it wasn't this overarching. It doesn't matter where I'm at, I'm going to find my way out of here.

No, because I basically went from Green Bay's training camp, so you're this close to your dream, to work at nights in a grocery store for five, 15 hour. And, you know, and I remember the first, you know, a couple of weeks when I was working there, it's like, how in the world did I get here? You know, and you go back to what the coach was saying, you know, he saw the writing on the wall like, dude, you got to do a lot more than this to, you know, to do what you want to do.

But I'm sitting here going, how in the world do I get here? Did I get here? And then the other part was, how in the world do I get out of here? Thank you. Still, Mike, there is no, you know, there's no path, right? There's no blueprint for going from a grocery store to the NFL. So those first couple of weeks, I was, you know, I was, while I was around and said, self-pity and, you know, you asked where there are times

that I doubted you, and that was one of those moments, like, oh my gosh. Maybe this isn't gonna happen. Like, I don't know what the path is from here. And then I remember, you know, the thing that really, you know, kind of kept me going was like, okay, the first thing is I know, I'm not going to end up here.

Like this is not the end game for me. And so that was the first realization I had to come to. Yeah, I'm here right now, but this is not the end game. So that's first, okay, now it's like, okay, now we gotta start taking steps. And for me, it was exactly that, okay, we're gonna take one step at a time, we're gonna take one day at a time,

and we're gonna continue to try to figure out and navigate this path back to where I want to go. So at that particular time, you know, I was dating my wife to be at the time. She was going in nursing school. She had two kids already. So she would go in nursing school during the day. I would watch the kids maybe get a little nap in. We do dinner together. I'd go workout, you know, sometime in the afternoon and then I'd work all night, get a few hours of sleep and we'd do it all over again. And so I was just kind of, this is our life. This is where we're at,

but we're gonna take one day at a time. And, you know, I was still preparing for football and doing that. I was taking care of my family. The only way I really could at the time, trying to keep all this stuff alive, letting my life be able to navigate what she needed to navigate in life.

And we started taking it one day at a time, going, okay, I'm gonna stay prepared for everything that's here. So I'm gonna just keep my eyes open for what that next step is, because I don't know what it is, I can't really force it right now. I'm gonna just keep my eyes open. And I remember saying to myself, when I got to that point was, okay. I'm gonna just keep my eyes open. And I remember saying to myself

when I got to that point was, okay, I'm working in a grocery store. And you sit back and you go, okay, what could I possibly do working nights and stocking shelves in a grocery store? That could ever help me, you know, if I do get another opportunity, or if I do navigate this to have a chance

to play football again. And, you know, the one thing that I remember doing when I was there, so kind of if you ever worked in a grocery store. I have. Okay, let's say you stock shelves, and so obviously you get an aisle every night, you know, aisle seven, the cereal aisle, and bring the boxes, and you fill up the shelves with the cereal. And then at the end of the night, our job was to face the aisle.

So what that means is we would take the product because not every shelf was completely full. And we would pull the product to the front of the aisle. And if you had baby food or if you had Kansas soup, you would turn the labels so they were perfectly upright. So when the person came down the aisle, they're like, okay, there's cream in my room. There's a ticket noodle. So they could read it. And so you'd line up those labels, and so every night we would have to do that at the

end of the night, is that, okay, you're, you know, once you've stuck it, now you have to face the aisle, and I remember telling myself, okay, I have no idea if that first person that locks into my aisle at 5 a.m. and has to grab something on the way to work, rest up, you know, run back, you know, something to the family before they head out to school. Well, ever know what my aisle looks like. But I always told myself, when I leave this store, I will have the best face style in this entire store. It will be pristine.

I will make sure every label is lined up perfectly. And to me, again, I don't know if anybody ever recommends it, but I did. It was something that got instilled in me to say, okay, here I am. I'm in a place I don't want to be. I don't know how long I'm going to be here. But while I'm here, I'm going to do something the best that I can do. I am going to shape my mindset to go, everything I do, be great at it.

And it was something that started in the grocery store that really would shape how I did everything moving forward. Is that now I don't do a lot of stuff. I don't have a lot of hobbies. But the things I do, I want to be really, really good at that. And that was instilled in me working in a grocery store in a place I didn't want to be. But I had to wade through all the junk of, why am I here?

And how did I get here? And how do I get out of here and go, I don't know. That stuff doesn't matter right now. What matters is you're here. What are you going to do now? What are you going to do in this situation? And so that was kind of how I started to take the small steps of going, I'm going to be great at this.

I'm going to do this. And I'm going to take care of my wife's kids when she's at school. And I'm going to work out and make sure I get my work kids. So if that opportunity presents itself, I'm ready for that. And I'm going to do all these things and I'm going to be the best atom that I could be. And I believe being able to shift my mindset away from the circumstances and onto what I could do or what I could be in that moment really, you know, spearheaded me to be able to start taking the steps of that mountain, to climb my way out of this situation that I'd found on something.

My gosh, my hair and this arms have goose bumps, and I don't ever say that. I didn't know we were able to be this good today. I want, here's why this is so good. I'm sitting here going, I want my kids to be listening to this right now. I'm dead serious, everybody. That's what I'm thinking.

And that lesson of how you do one thing is how you do everything was instilled in you there. And just be great where you're planted. Greatness becomes a habit. Excellence becomes a habit. And I'm just, I'm listening to you, brother. And I'm like, just for you guys all to know, and I want you to watch the movie, so I'm not going to give away the entire part of the story.

But a lot of you know it, but I'm really glad it's coming out now because there's a generation younger than you and I Kurt That don't know you're they know Brady was a six round draft pick and blah blah blah Which by the way, I love Tommy. It's the it's an unbelievable story This is a thousand times better story if you go through it because for me the five best quarterbacks I've ever seen play football Kurt Warner's in that conversation for me, the five best quarterbacks I've ever seen play football, Kurt Warner's in that conversation for me. And I, you know, Joe Montana's a friend of mine. I know Tommy pretty well. Peyton's been at events of mine. I've talked about, I was at, for me to picture this man,

dialing in the can of soup to face correctly, and to know that a few years later, guys, I'm in Atlanta at the Super Bowl, watching this man win a Super Bowl against the Titans, is just hard to fathom for me. It's just, it blows my mind. No, I want to ask you about though. So people have these failures, right?

And they have this imposter syndrome, you know, I don't belong and you would just had to overcome all these different things. Then you're, you make the team with the Rams, your second string. They are a lot of people picking them to win the Super Bowl that year, not because of you, but because of Trent Green, who's the star in quarterback. You got Isaac Bruce, you got the greatest show on turf. You got Marks of the coordinator, Vermeal. The team looks like it's going to be something pretty special.

You have my dear friend, Marshall Fock, who's one of your best friends. And then I remember when Green got hurt and it wasn't like, all right, they lost their starter. It was like devastation. You know, I was like, I was watching it live their starter. It was like devastation. You know, I was watching it live, actually, I was like devastation. Like all the seasons over. Was that the tone in the locker room? Cause I'm like, I were turning this guy warner. I remember them going, warner, who the heck is corner? I remember, I don't remember who it was. It was someone

on CBS is like, I have not, they went to him for an analysis. Like, I don't know anything about this guy. I don't know anything about it. Was the team rally initially or was it like, ah, crap. And then finally rallied around you once you started to, or you already shown them everything in practice that they needed to know? Well, you know, there's a couple of things here. I mean, obviously, you know, your teammates and, you know,

we all have the next man up and we're gonna fight through this and we're gonna go. And so, you know, two degree from the outside, you know, there wasn't that big sigh or I could have been walking to the locker room and everybody's crying and going, oh my gosh, you know, it wasn't that. But yeah, you could feel it.

I mean, a trip was playing great football. I mean, I'm not gonna sit here and I'm like, a big part of our hope was Pinto Trent Green who was playing great that understood our system and was hearing it up along with all these pieces. So when a guy like that goes down, I felt it, you know, like I felt like man, like what a bummer for Trent, with a bummer for our team, just, you know, outside of myself because he was playing so well. And so, yeah, there was that side from everybody.

And you can feel it. And the bottom line, though, is I got it. I mean, I get it. You know, nobody knows who I am. Nobody knows how good I can be. It was natural for everybody to take that deep breath and kind of go, oh man, the fate of the Rams. Here we go again, you know, the curse of the Rams. Here we go again, the curse of the rams.

Here we go again. So I didn't, you know, that wasn't something that I was like, oh my gosh, they don't believe in me. Yeah, I get it. I was realistic from it that I know they don't know what they don't know. They don't know if I'm any good or not. I remember doing an interview actually about three or four weeks into the season.

And, you know, all those, those weapons you talked about, Marshall and Isaac and Tori and all the guys, Oz and Ricky, all those guys. We all sat down to kind of all my weapons and myself sat down in an interview. And I remember the interviewer asking them, okay, did you guys know? And I thought, okay, this is gonna be interesting.

Is everybody gonna say, oh yeah, we knew, we knew he was gonna be great. What are they gonna say? And so, to ask, you know, we knew he was gonna be great. What are they gonna say? And so, to ask them that question, and I remember Marshall answered me, go, you know what, we thought Kurt was awful because in practice every day, you know, much more with just your out of it

and with right. Every time we got into film, we thought, my gosh, this guy can't play. Because all they heard when it came to me was, and coaches, y'all in, coach, this guy must not be any good. And so that obviously lends itself to Otrant gets hurt. And all we know is this guy that gets yelled at every day, oh man, here goes our season.

So they even said, we didn't think he was any good, simply because of what we heard every day in practice. And so it was kind of one of those ironic moments that I understood it. You always want people to believe in you. But I understood why they didn't. I wasn't upset or it wasn't one of those moments. Like, right, I went home to my wife.

I'm like, I can't believe these guys don't believe I can do it. It was just like, I gotta go show them just like every other time. I get it when an announcer says, oh, they're seasons over because one is taken over. Why would they think anything different? Why would anybody go, oh gosh, yeah, this guy did really well in a arena football. So he's going to tear it up in the NFL. I just looked at it as like, okay, here we go again.

This is my moment. I've been waiting for this moment forever. They don't need to believe in me right now. I need to prove to them that they can believe in me. That's what life is all about. It's about proving to them because, you know, we're all thrown into moments where it's like, okay, here I'm going to trust you with this. I don't trust you yet that I think you're going to be great at it,, but I'm gonna give you the opportunity. Now you've got to show me. You've got to prove, I mean, I often do we do that with our kids, right?

At some point you gotta go, all right, here's the keys to the car. I'm not convinced, I'm not convinced that they're gonna come home safe, I'm not convinced. But at some point you've gotta let them go and cover to you. And that was my moment is that, you know, those guys didn't necessarily believe, but it didn't stop them from going out and doing their job

and doing their job well to make my job easier and allow me to play to what I did. And so, yeah, that was one of those moments where, you know, everybody said the right things, you know, coach for me, you know, you know, who rally around for one and will play good for that. You know, and I always joke that he was saying it through tears. You know, I'm sure the team will trick green.

But I think some of the tears were like, oh my gosh, here goes my job. You know, I got to trust this to this guy that none of us know anything about. But, but obviously there was, there was a touch of faith there. You know, back when the first game of the opportunity to be a part of the team. I remember he told me in the hallway, you know, I was in a round waiting like last day at Cutsley, am I gonna make it or not? And we I ran into the coach of me on in the hallway. And that's when he told me I made the team and he just said, you're hurt. I don't know what it is, but there's something special about you. I just I recognize something special about you and I just, you know, can't wait to see what it is.

Like, I can't let you go without seeing what that is. So obviously from the get go, there was something that he saw on me. But it was, you know, it was understandable that, you know, he was crying and he was upset and we thought our season, at least a some degree, was taking a big hit when Trent went down. And I was okay with that, because I knew

it was always gonna come down to, okay? You might get one game, you might get two games, but here is your moment. Now it's time for you to go prove to yourself to everyone else that you belong here. If you don't belong here, then they should move on. They shouldn't go to someone else. And so, yeah, I mean, I don't think it was a situation

where everybody believed in me in the moment, right? It showed them any of this great stuff been practiced where they go, oh, we're gonna be just fine. Everybody was worried. And rightfully so. And now it's like, okay, go prove it to them. Well, it's interesting.

Everyone says the NFL's a show me league. And I said to my son one time, when I said, we said Max, life is a show me life. Yeah, life is eventually a prove it life. You gotta eventually put it up. But so you talked about believing, they didn't believe in you. You can talk about tears. If you guys know dick for me, there's tears a lot, right? The more than a normal head coach, there's a lot of emotion there. But I want to go to listen, there's people chasing their dream right now. People always ask me the athletes I work with that I coach, you know What do they want from you when you're working with them on their mental game?

Like really they're all athletes candidly they want more confidence and I mean real confidence to execute That's to be they can be humble and have humility like Brady shows or that you showed But the truth is underneath there. There's gonna be a confident dude and to perform under pressure to execute. And this combination, what I'm curious about is I see people that, you know, they've got this dream, they're self, they start to do something, they're making progress. Then there's the setback. That's the defining moment. And so I want to ask you about that. You got to coach you's and tears. Mark is beating the heck out of you and all through camp. He says he did it intentionally.

I don't know that I always buy that, but he said intentionally they were putting you under pressure to see what you were made of. You were stocking shelves. You had been sort of overlooked all your career. Now you're playing well, but then what happens in a game, maybe there was a game where you threw three picks or you threw four picks or something happened. And then that first shot of reality happens

on your way to the dream. Every entrepreneur can get this, everybody. And then you're like, maybe they were right. Did that moment ever happen for you where you're like, I'm cruising, I'm doing well, adversity, maybe I am a fake. Did that ever happen? It didn't. I think it's one of those things, and again, who we know this in life is that, you know,

we have to define ourselves by who we are, the majority of the time, and especially in sports, right? You know, business the same way. Every deal is not gonna be a home run. Every game is not gonna be 300 yards and three touchdowns. It just doesn't work like that. But you have to realize in the moment, okay, what happens in that moment to,

you know, to take me down that path. I think, you know, to me, if you know what you're doing, and you know you're good at something, I could always look at the film and go, ah, gosh, that's why that game got off the rails. That's what I did there. That's not going to be what I do most of the time.

That's not who I am. It's just sometimes you have those moments or we're in sports. I mean, I think it's a great analogy. He said, you have those games. Everybody does. Nobody plays, I mean, you talk about Tom Brady, right? Let's play with the Ever Play in the National Football League.

He's had some clokers. He's lost some super balls. You know, multiple winners, I mean, we all have those games. It's really about how you define yourself and how you see yourself and what you do in those moments that really, really, you know, to me, define who you are. So when you have one of those off days or you have one of those periods that aren't going you're in a slump, you never let that go. Oh, that's who I am.

No, I never had that moment. I was like, no, I know who I am. No, I never had that moment. I was like, no, I know who I am. I know what I'm capable of. Yeah, we had some, you know, games, I, you know, we go look at the NFC championship game, right? The NFC championship game, we win 11 to 6. It's the greatest show on turf, the best offense ever. I can't do anything. You can't put a points on the board at all. And, you know, and so you play a game like that. And then you got to turn around because we're fortunate to win that game and you go, OK, are we going to let that game be what we are in the Super Bowl?

Are you just going to go, no, that was a game where the other team was really good, which sometimes happens to. Sometimes you give credit to the other side because your opponents are really good. So you give credit or you say, man, I really screwed up a couple of plays. And yeah, that was really, really bad there. Don't let that happen again. And you know, in your mind, I'm not going to let that happen again. That's, that's not how I'm going to play the game.

And so I never really had those moments, you know, even later on in my career to get out, I probably let you go later, but later on when I got cut by a couple teams, you know, when other people were saying, oh, he's not that same guy. Even in those moments, I thought they didn't know what they're talking about. You know, show me. Show me why I'm not that guy. Show me what you're saying. And don't just say something. Prove to me that I'm not that guy. And you're going to have to prove it to me before I'm going to believe it. Yeah, I watched you really closely. So that you have that internal thing, all great people have, which is that you that even with the athletes I work with when they miss a putt, what's the average amateur golfer say with them is to putt?

I suck. I can't putt. When I teach my pros to say when they miss pucks, this may sound stupid, but their internal dialogue is when they miss a putt I literally have them say that's not like me. That's not like me. Literally, it's a behavior that's not like them. That it's out of character to have played that way. Just a great lesson when you miss a sales call, you miss a meeting. I've had instances with my kids where I've said something to them, I shouldn't have said. And it's just not like me.

It's not that I'm a bad dad. I had a bad moment. So I had a moment where you kind of brought me to tears. And I just want to ask you about little elements of that's made you great. And before there was a Tim Tibo, for me, there was a Kurt Warner who was willing to be tears. I just want to ask you about little elements of that's made you great. And, you know, before there was a chimedivo, for me, there was a Kurt Warner who was willing to be more bold about his faith than most athletes I had seen before. So you have this super

bold with the Patriots. It doesn't work out for whatever reason. We won't go into that. There's some theories behind that, but as a Patriot, that is a Brady helmet. That is a Brady helmet. I'm sorry. I can't help it. I know. I knew that's a picture of someone back in the background. It is. It probably makes you twitch a little bit, but by the way, he should have another Super Bowl. I just want to tell you guys all this. It was the worst officiated Super Bowl of all time. The Cardinals Pittsburgh game. He won't say it, but they should have won that Super Bowl too. That's just my opinion, but he can't say that,

but I can't for him. Having said that though, you win the Super Bowl and it made me emotional. I stayed. I was in the stadium still. And you basically said, thank you, Jesus, from the podium when you won. And it struck me.

It made me, I'm like, I love this man. Because faith was new to me, relatively new to me in my life at that time. So what role does has that played? And what is it like? Before again, are you praying before a game just to bring you comfort? How does this just all worked in your life?

I always wanted to ask you that question, the application of it. And it's a fascinating thing because oftentimes, you know, it's in moments like that, where we get the opportunity to profess our faith in a way that the multitude get to see it. And, you know, you have different people that come from a lot of different places. So, I remember when I said that and, you know, naturally the people that don't fully understand, you know, the kind of faith that I had would be like, oh, well, of course, you think God's up there making your past as fly straighter or a

tighter spiral or the other team fall down instead of making it. You know, and it's like, you don't get it. I'm not thanking God because every time I close my eyes and throw it, and he just made it go to the right guy every time. It's thankinging God for the blessings and life, for the opportunities and life, for trusting me, you know, with the platform that I had been given. And that to me was extremely important at that time because of the journey that I've been on. And because of the way the season played out is that, you know, if you're a person

of faith and you read the Bible. I think what you realize, it's a compilation of stories of limited people that found themselves in crazy circumstances that didn't have all the answers and just made them self-abailable and say, God, show me who I am, show me how you want to use me. And in that, you can be glorified. And that was really what that moment was for me, is that, you know, thank you for choosing me, you know, for this moment, for this journey, because so long in my life, and you know, I was the guy that's like, why me?

Well, you know, why do I have to be the guy that's sitting on the bench for four years? But why do I have to work in a grocery? Why can't I be the number one draft pick and go on and have a whole thing career and everything play out in my fatal. So for so many years it was like, why me? Why do I have to have this journey? And then you worked your way through it and you find out who you are and we'll talk about that later,

kind of the training ground or the wilderness that I went through to prepare me for this moment that you're talking about. But you find yourself in that moment. And now you kind of flip it. And you look at God and you kind of go, God, why need? Why did you choose me for this? Why do I get to be the modern day biblical story? You know, why do I get to be that guy that people are gonna look at?

You go, no, this guy was in a grocery store. You know, this guy was in the body of a wheel. You know, this guy was in the wilderness and a whale. You know, this guy was, you know, in the wilderness and this is how God was able to use him. And so that was what that moment was for me. It wasn't thanking him for giving me a trophy. It wasn't thanking him for allowing me to win a Super Bowl. It was thanking him for trusting me with this journey and this story and giving me the opportunity and allowing me to take advantage of the opportunity and do all the stuff that we talked about through those other things to keep me focused on what was most important, you know, and then ultimately to find the kind of faith that I wanted to have where even on that podium, even when it was so much about holding up that trophy, I wanted to remind myself, that's not why I'm here. That's not what this is about. It's open time. I tell people all the time, like, you know, sometimes I'll sign an autograph

and I'll put a verse, you know, when I sign my autograph. And I know a lot of people think, oh, you know, he's riding down this verse so the person will take the ball home and open their Bible and get a Matthews, 633 or, you know, whatever that may be. And I tell people all the time, I was not signing the autograph and putting the verse on there for anybody but myself. When I signed and put those verses on there, it was reminded to me that here I am, somebody wants my autograph, like somebody wants me to sign a football. Matthew 633, seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all this will be added unto you. first his kingdom and his righteousness and all this will be added unto you. Always remember to keep him first. Colossians 3, 23 is another one and back to our moment in the Super Bowl. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability as a unto the Lord.

And so those were reminders to me like remember why you're here. Don't let this, all of this, you know, overshadow Let this, all of this, you know, overshadow what it is that you're all about and what it is that you believe and what you want to do with this platform. And so that to me was what that moment was on that Super Bowl podium and a lot of people I know didn't get it. You know, they're like, oh, you know, it's the Genie up above that, oh, he's the one. We are you, did you pray more than the Titans prayed? And so now you get to win a Super Bowl. No. And so those are things that not everybody understood.

Nobody ever really fully understands your journey. But those are what those moments and those things mean to me. And so to the second part of your question, like, what did you do? You know, did you pray? And I'm not going to sit here and say I didn't pray to win. Of course.

And I'm also not going to sit here and say that just because I prayed to win, does it mean God goes, oh, OK, boom, let's press Kurt. And I'm also not going to sit here and say that just because I prayed to win, doesn't mean God goes, oh, okay, boom, let's press Kurt and that's not blessed the Titans. I wanted to win. I didn't know what that meant. I'm, here's this God that I believe in that I know is all powerful and God, I like to win. You know, this is what I like. I mean, that's what prayer is, isn't it?

Every time you pray, you hit your knees, you go, God, can you give me this? Can you protect my kids? Can you watch me this? Can you protect my kids? Can you watch over me? Can you bless me in this way? So yeah, I mean, I was gonna pray for those things. But more importantly, my prayer is before games was just gone. Let me glorify you no matter what happens. No matter what happens in this game.

And remember, standing on that podium, and I remember thinking to myself, oh my gosh, I am going to win so many superlatives because here I am on the podium and I'm thanking God and God's going to love this and he's going to say, okay, let's just plus Kurt let him win a suit for every year and he's going to get up there and say, thank you Jesus. And then a couple years later, you know, you're getting beaten to a sewer born and find yourself on the bench and you go through this journey. And I remember when I was benched in St. Louis. And I remember a reporter coming over to me, you know, midway through that year when I had been benched. And he just said, hey, I just want you to know,

you have spoken more to me about who you are and what this faith is that we all watched, you know, on the big screen and we all watched on the Superbook. You have shown me more what this faith is that we all watched, you know, on the big screen, and we all watch on the Superbook, you have shown me more what this faith is that you believe in this year than you ever did when you were on the Superbook podium. And it blew my mind because I thought, how's that possible?

You know, when I said that, there was a hundred million people watching. How did that not have more effect than, you know, five reporters watching me all year long when I was on the bench in St. Louis not talking to anybody. But that becomes what life is all about is that when it comes to what faith or when it comes to who we are on the character, back to what we were talking about, right? They're watching me in practice. They're watching me in the locker room. They're watching me with things aren't going my direction and they're going, let me see who this guy really is. Let me see him in those moments

because that's what's gonna resonate with me. Not the fact that, yeah, you made a great throw. Thank you, Jesus. Oh, okay, everybody can do that. You know, life's going my way. Thank you, Jesus. And so that was not what that moment on the podium was all about. Even though people don't

understand it and people of faith will be like, Oh, give me five. You know, praising God in front of millions of people. And yeah, I was I was happy to do. I was honored to be able to have that moment to do that. But that was as much for me in that moment to go. Hey, don't just hold this trophy up and think that you're you're great all of a sudden. Yeah. I think that you're just a superstar and everything else disappears because you finally made it. Remember why you're here. I love it. I'm sitting here, brother.

I just want you to know. I'm sitting here thinking if I was a part of my dream podcast of what we would talk about with somebody, it's what we're doing right now. Just this is just it's so outstanding for me. And for me too, you know, when I profess my faith, it's what we're doing right now. Just this, it's so outstanding for me. And for me too, you know, when I profess my faith, it's a reminder to me, and it just sort of comes out of you sometimes when you achieve something to you're like, I could not have done this on my own. You know, I'm not capable of doing this on my, I know my limitations, I know my weaknesses, you know, I know my tendencies. And so for me, oftentimes, is as I, when I profess my faith,

it's for me, it's just like, thank you, Lord. Like I would not be here without you. You're talking about wilderness time. It's interesting. The year-old career. It's so interesting to me. I told you privately, but I should share it with the audience. Marshall Fock told me, you know, Kurt's the best man I've ever known. And I said, why?

I'm a question asker. And he goes, how he dealt with the Bernal stuff. And with those of you guys that don't know, there was a point. You have Kurtz, this unbelievable achiever. He's got an MVP. They won a Super Bowl and then on his own team, he ends up getting bench. Then he leaves there was and it just doesn't seem justified to me. I watched a lot of football.

Obviously you know, you've forgotten more football than I'll ever know, but I was a fan of the league and of you. And a few other guys I watch very closely. Then I want you to go to the giant. You're playing pretty well. You guys have a couple losses. They bench you now, man, he's closely. Then I want you to go to the giant you're playing pretty well you guys have a couple losses they've been chewing now manning's it. Then I watch you go to the Cardinals you're I love you're playing pretty darn well and then the liner thing it's like it's like it's like it's almost it's almost never escaped you this

I don't know what I call a level of disrespect or lack of appreciation. What did you learn? You said don't forget what what God taught you during this wilderness time. What's the wilderness all those times look like for you and what were what did you learn? Well, I'm going to take you in two different spots. And so, okay, first of all, I'm going to take you back before I got to the NFL. So we're my three stories in the Bible is David and Goliath. And everybody loves that story. And everybody gets the story. And we use it, of course, when you got an underdog against, you know, whatever that giant is in that situation. And one of the moments that I really love in that story is when, you know, King Saul asked David like, dude, why do you think you can defeat, you know, go live?

What is it about you? I mean, look at you. You can't even wear my armor. You got no defenses. What, why do you think? Why do you have this illusion that you're gonna be the one to take down this guy that everybody else is afraid of?

And of course, you know, he goes, you know, my God, and you know, we knew he had God on his side. What I love is that he goes, well, because when I was a shepherd boy and when, you know, a lion came to take care of, you know, to take down my flock, I was able to feed that lion. When a bear came to take care of, to take down my flock, I was able to feed that lion. When a bear came to take my foot, I was able to defeat that bear.

And so, yeah, maybe they on as big as Kalyas, but every time something came about, I was able to overcome. I was able to defeat it. So, why is this any different? Oh, yeah, looks a little bit bigger. Yeah, he talks a good game, but that's what you learn in the world. That's what you learn when you're

tending from in those different situations. And so that's what I was telling you earlier, I looked at it. Oh, when I did play that one year in college, I took down that line. When I played those three years in a row, I took down that there. So yeah, I know this is the NFL. And I know it's bigger in data and everything and everything else, but God's showing me and it's been faithful through it all and showing me that I'm capable of defeating everything

that comes in my path. Why not this one? So that was a tremendous lesson that I learned through the first part of the wilderness. It's so good. And then you talk about the second part. And the second part was probably more difficult because, you know, just from the standpoint that, you know, two super balls in two years, two MVP or in three years, two, two, two, two MVP's

in three years. And so you get to the panicle. And now, you know, we all think, okay, I've earned it. I'm here. I've proven that I belong here. Then all of a sudden, I know where it's like, boom, this isn't working out. And then you go to the giants and it starts well, and then boom, and then they change. And then you go to Arizona, same kind of thing. It starts well, and then you're just kind of like,

what's happening here? Like what is going on here? And it was really, really tough because those are the moments where you really have to fight. Why is this happening? What's going on? Am I missing something? Because that was probably the biggest time in my life

when you talked about the doubt. That was when the doubt really crept in. And I don't feel like I'm any different. And I feel like I can play as well as I ever have. But everybody's now sees me in my perspective on me is completely different. But I'm a trust guy. I'm a trust guy that he's got me here.

I don't know what that means. I don't know what it's going to look like at the end of the day. But I'm going to trust God. Well, true faith is going, hey, whatever my circumstances are, I still have this relationship and I still want this relationship. I mean, I still want that person to leave you know, it's like in a marriage, right? And every day is not good. Yeah, there's moments where my wife's not talking to me for a few days. And I'm sitting here going, oh man, where are we going with this thing? But I always say to myself, but there's nobody I'd rather do like this than her, even when we disagree, even when we argue, I only want to do life for her.

And that's how I looked at my state, because then I don't care where you take me. I just, I want to do life the way you want me to do. I want to impact people through this journey that you've given me. And, you know, as you go through that, that's kind of what I was always preaching to myself. It's just, just stay faithful. And then sure enough, here comes Arizona. You know, I go to Arizona, and when I go to Arizona,

you know, everybody's going, are you kidding me? You're going to go get Kurt Warner. His best years are behind the others. No chance. This guy's going to do anything. And then I'm joining a team where everybody looked at me and go, well, I mean, I know your best years are ahead of you, but don't go to Arizona.

I mean, I remember having a conversation with Dick for me, and he's like, you're not really considering Arizona. Are you like, go there? That's like the graveyard because, you know, of the way that the organization was in the culture within that place. And, you know, I looked at him and go, you know, this kind of feels like a perfect marriage.

Here's a guy that nobody expects anything from it. The guy that's not gonna ever do anything in rest of his career, why not join a team that nobody expects anything from? That there's no way these two things together, you know, I mean, you put two bad things together, there's no way that two know you're going to be a positive. And I remember thinking to myself, and this just feels like a situation that God can

be using a powerful way. Like, this is what God does. He takes bad and he takes bad and he puts him together and mixes it up with a little bit of faith and, you know, and it's just, and so, you know, when I look back at my life, I look at it from those perspectives and those stories that I read. And once again, I look back and go, God, thank you for trusting me to be faithful in those moments. Because I do believe, and as weird as it might sound,

is that I believe that there's some people that can handle the failures better from a faith perspective than others. And that's exactly what I believe is going through it. And it was hard. It was hard when people attacked you and when people throw stones. And the natural thing is to wanna pick up a stone

and blow it back. Well, believe it, it was just, again, it was all those moments of prayer and kind of, you know, reading the Bible and just saying, you know, maybe this is our path. Maybe this is how we have the greatest impact when people is by having to be the ones that go through the stuff, because somebody's gotta go through the stuff, right?

Somebody's gotta show, you know, that it's not always ready when you're following God, that it's not always a blessing, but there's going to be these wilderness moments. And oftentimes I think life is about what you do with those wilderness moments. And that ultimately ends up with where you go and what you become from there. I'm believeable. I'm sitting here thinking how good God is, by the way, that there's been different timing where you and I were going to be doing this. And then obviously your daughter connects the two of us. and I'm just realizing we're having this conversation the week of Christmas. It's just, I just, it's just God's so good. I had Jolostine on recently and we were talking

about, you're talking about the Old Testament. It made a point to me that I thought was just really interesting. It goes, you know, everything God basically creates everything in the dark, in the dark times. I had really never thought about it before. He said, think about it. You literally created the world from darkness to light. He said, it's interesting. A new day, you think a new day would start like when the sun comes up.

Turns out a new day always begins in the dark. And so a new things are born. I'm just so grateful that we're talking about this during a time because it's been a hard couple years for people. And a lot of people can relate to what you're describing. They're in the wilderness season of their life. And so guys, that's why by the way, we talk about ultimate redemption.

Yeah, they've made a movie about this. Go see the movie. I'm telling you, I can't, I literally cannot wait. I mean, I, and I know most of the story and I can't wait. I don't, I don't think you know most of the story. Okay, maybe I know. I'm excited. There's a lot of that stuff.

That's kind of the beautiful part is that, you know, this goes beyond just most of the story. Okay, maybe I don't know. I'm excited. There's a lot of that. I don't know. That's kind of the beautiful part is that, you know, this goes beyond just kind of the football journey. And it dives into the story of my wife's story of my son. So it's got this title American underdog. And it's about a family of underdogs. And so that's where I think it's really going to resonate with people. The resonate with people is that you're going to come from a lot of different places and you're gonna get a chance to be touched by this movie

because there's different underdogs in different situations just as you said, is it? I mean, how many people do you think are listening right now that two years ago would have said, oh, I'll never be an underdog. You know, I'll never find myself in the wilderness. I just won two Super Bowls or played in two Super Bowls in three years.

We're good now. And then all of a sudden the pandemic hits and life hits and all of a sudden it's like holy cow. I never saw myself in a Super World game. And now what the heck do I do from here to get back to where I want to go? And so I agree with you. I think the timing of this movie is it's perfect because it is about that underdog journey and about that wilderness time. And I believe a lot of people find themselves in more of a wilderness situation now than they've ever been in their lives. You know what? I'm really glad you said that.

And I've always been interested in your relationship with Brenda from a distance. So I know, I know the fact that she had had two young children. She was in the military. The guy kind of was not really a great dude that ends up leaving you, you know, you speak to your heart, you fell in love with her, and I'll let them see in the movie how you met and all that. But, you know, you were willing to take on two children that were not at that time yours and it's just a really beautiful story.

But since we don't have a lot of time left, I did promise the audience that I would talk a little bit about this beautiful family you built and the lessons I've learned from you. The one I stole from you was this notion. I want you to talk about another one that when you go to a restaurant that you have your family select another family that you're going to buy a meal for. So that's the one I just want to tell everybody that spoiler alert that I took where my family and I go to a restaurant.

It's let's pick another family we're going to buy dinner for anonymously. And when we leave, just there's this gift that you leave. But there's another thing I hope you remember. I got a good story that goes with that. And then we're going out of time. No, no, I won't. I won't the time. Go, please go.

Let's just go. So when I was at the Super Bowl in 2000, whatever it was, 2009 with the Cardinals. So we got down to Tampa and your family comes in, you know, later in the week. And I remember, you know, going out to a restaurant with my family, we tried to sneak in the back and just, you know, a small group, you know, having dinner. And as you said, you know, that was another one of those things like, hey guys, it's keep our eyes off ourselves. We go to a restaurant. Just our kids would have to basically tell us, hey, we should pay for their meal and we would say, okay, why? Tell me why you see that group. And so we were at dinner that night

and there was this huge family there. I mean, probably 30, 35 people. And it was so much fun to watch, you know, that the older kids taking care of the younger kids and the family's laughing and having a great time. And it was just a joy to watch from afar. Like, and this is what, you know, I want our family to be whenever, you know, we grow up and grandkids and everybody just enjoying it and

take care of each other. And so, you know, like, no more it was like, okay, can we get the waiter over and, you know, we always try to do it in a way like, please don't tell them. And for whatever reason, it was so hard for our waiters to not tell people like, how hard is it? Just tell them they're meal pay for and then just move on. But so we paid for their meal. You know, I thought it was anonymous and then, you know, as we're walking out, one of

the gentlemen, you know, from the family comes over and just goes, Hey, I want to thank you, you know, for taking care of my meal. And I'm like, uh, too big blue it. And he just wants to be said, I just want you to know, I'll be, I'll be seated up on the other sideline on Sunday because he played for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Take care of my check.

Sometimes how God works that sense of humor that at the end of the day you know where we we seem like opponents sometimes on the football field together and it was such a beautiful moment, but So that is so awesome, but there's this other thing you do with the eyes. I'll let you tell it I read your book to prep and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is teaching such lessons to children. Why did I never think about this before? So would you just share this other lesson you do when you're in a restaurant? It's by the way you can do it anywhere with people, but this is beautiful and awesome.

Well, I tell you what, in this day and age, it becomes more prevalent, doesn't it? Yeah. Because now you walk into a restaurant and you see a family and everybody's on their phone. Yeah. Everybody's eyes are down and they're all doing their own different thing or you know even if you don't have your phone you know what's natural is you know you grab your menu and somebody comes over and you're like ah give me a burger and fries and you know we always thought it was important to respect everyone and respect the positions and respect those that are serving you.

And so one of the things that we would always tell our kids is that when you order your meal, look into the eyes of the waiter or waitress and you know and respect them and you know have that eye contact when you order. And in a way to just basically say thank you for serving me. And so we would always say you know at the end what colorize do they have? I love it. So you know just so we you, what colorize do they have? I love it. So, you know, just so we, you know, would make sure that they had to think about it. And that's the biggest thing, right?

Is it's not just going through the motions of, okay, I have a burger in front. Like a moment, look at you waiter, let him know that you're thankful for what they're doing and be respectful of that encounter that you have. And to us, it was just little things. You know, our kids would probably roll their eyes and add to do. And again, most of them, like you say to yourself,

I would really that big a deal. Yeah. It's just moments like that where I think it's so important for us to recognize other people. And take a second to step back and go, I appreciate you for you. I mean, you're here serving me. I mean, you're here serving me. You're here getting me my meal, and I'm fortunate

that I can pay for my meal or pay for somebody else's meal in the restaurant. But I appreciate that person that has to work that job. I appreciate that person that's working for 550 an hour in a grocery store that's facing the aisle. So when I come down at 5 a.m. I know exactly where the true mushroom soup is. You know, is that that to me becomes important is that the little things become so important in life

and most importantly, between people. I feel so often that the value of humanity is disappearing and we're not recognizing who people are and what they're all about. And we're not appreci who people are and what they're all about and we're not appreciating them for who they are and too often it's like what can you do for me? Oh you're here to get me my meal? All right, give me some burgers and fries and bring me a token and hurry up. Yeah. Instead of going, man, I don't know whether I had in life, I don't know what, but I'm appreciative that they're working that job and they're doing this for me. I appreciate

the journey that they've been on. Let me stop for a second and listen to them and say to just tell them, you know, what I need to tell them or what I watch from them. I just think it's missing in life. And we see it every day and watch the news and just everybody's stop for a second. You look at another person in the eye and say, tell me about you. Tell me about your journey. I appreciate you, even though you're different, different color, different, you know, political

background, you're different sexual orientation, different faith, whatever it is, that's okay. Tell me about you. Let me get to know you a little bit. And so that was just one of those moments where you might ask their name, but you're looking at eyes and it's like, okay, Sarah has blue eyes. I love it. That moment of connection that we wanted our kids to have to stop everything and appreciate them.

I love that. It's easy to forget that I'm talking to an NFL Hall of Fame football player, isn't it guys? It's easy to forget what this man's accomplished in a sport because of the kind of man that he is. And that's, by the way, my kids are 18, 19, and 18 now. And there's a part of me that wishes I could go back and just say what color were her eyes just to me guys overall in life right now

fewer and fewer people. Excuse me more and more people feel they're not even seen that people don't even see them. And just that connection just looking someone in the eye. Thank you. I appreciate you. God bless you. Whatever it might be, it's just such a huge thing to be able to do for one another. Kurt, you have something that's a combination. I just want to acknowledge something about you that I admire. I try to find in my friends

and that I admire in people, which is they, they have this, they tow this line between tremendous self-confidence and humility. So I know a lot of people that have a lot of humility are very humble, but they don't have any self-esteem or self-confidence

and they're tough people to be around and it's difficult to get them to achieve something in life. And you and I both know, especially in the sports world and business though, there's the other side of people with tons of self-confidence, but they lack that degree of humility and that humble side just don't want to grow and learn and be better.

I just want to acknowledge that I think that you that you have those both and droves. Couple of things I want to ask you about you and Brenda, I'll let the movie tell me some of it. This is the, I'm going right to the harder question because I was just fascinated by something. And by the way, it's probably changed, but I really reached out.

What do I not know about him that I wanna know to do this? And so I've always watched Brenda, it's funny. When you played more than almost any player that'd show your wife in the stance. So Brenda was very well known when you were playing. It was probably a good thing and a bad thing because then all the fans could recognize her on the road. I'm sure it's two. And I kind of just fell in love with her story and the parts that I know about it. But then I was researching and you seem

to have this beautiful relationship. You've seven children. But in the interview that I watched, which is an older one, because this will help everyone in their relationships. Maybe you know where I'm going to go here. but she actually said in this interview, and you acknowledge she goes, I don't always trust him. And what a real thing to say, by the way, and admit, especially when you're married to such a, apparently a godly man and a good man and, and, but you know, you're an athlete. There's all those things that being an athlete. But then I think there's a lot of people that watch these.

It's sea marriages that seem perfect. Like, ah, they trust each other. Everything's perfect. It's Kumbaya. They go to church. They hold hands. And you're in a real relationship. So I'm curious, is that still an issue a little bit?

Like, it was just trust issues? And how do you navigate that and love her through that? And it could be anything in a relationship that's not good. This is something pretty important for people to hear. And I hope there's still here listening or watching. Yeah, it's still an issue. Because my wife was cheated on in her previous marriage. And then, of course, as God sees fit, right?

Oh, let me give you this guy that's going to be in the public eye for the rest of your lives. Let me give you this journey where he's gonna be out traveling and on his own and there's gonna be temptation everywhere. And so a lot of times, she's like, really? She always jokes that she asked her, a guy that was gonna be faithful, a guy that had a job and a guy that was ugly,

that no other woman would want. So that wouldn't be an issue. And so that's kind of her line know, her line is because she knew that was going to be touched. And still to this day, there are times and issues went, of course, like anything else, where we've experienced something, there's moments where that rises back up.

And it's like, you know, I don't know. And it's been a hard part of our marriage. Is that a, I've got to have some sort of empathy to understand, I get it. I get it. Your eggs are in my basket. And I've asked you to trust me with your life and everything. You know, she's given up a lot of her life to allow me to chase my dream. And so a lot of that's there.

And so I understand, you know, when I'm gone or when something happens and we're going, oh man, is this that moment again? Is it going to happen to me again? Is, you know, it's currently going to go a different direction. And so it has been an area of contention in, you know, in our relationship because, you know, a lot of times I'll sit back and go, have I not proven to you yet? After all these years, do you not trust me yet? And I think, you know, just like in every relationship, is that, and Brenda has a great line in the movie, you know, even though it's earlier on in her life,

or she goes, you know, I'm a work in progress. And what I've realized in marriage is that we're both works in progress. So, you know, there's things that I do that I could have done better that wouldn't make her not trust me. And again, that's not something that steps over the line. It's just something that I didn't consider.

Like, oh, there was a, she's up in the stands and there's a female reporter down on the field and I know her, so I go over and give her a hug and beverage and my wife sees that from up in the stands and she's like, okay, who's that? What is that? And for me, it was like, well, no big deal. It was a friend of mine.

I gave him a hug. It was nothing. It was innocent. But those kinds of things, I understand. I could be more conscious of those things. That's the point. I could talk to her. One of the things early on is that when people

would come up to take pictures, the natural thing is you put your arm around a woman and in style and take a picture. And my wife just said, Hey, do you mind just not put your arm around it? Just haven't come up and just keep your arms down and then just smile because, you know, I could see a picture sometime and now your arms around another woman and again, it could be very innocent, but those are things that, you know, that bring up conjure up different thoughts for me based on my past. And so, both of us going, sometimes I got to go, can you just trust me in this?

I just need you to trust me. And I know it might be hard for you, but I want you to know I'm going to be faithful. And then there's other times she asks me, hey, do you mind doing this? And for me, it's like, yeah, that's a little thing that I can do as we continue to work through this. And we're, you know, we're in this thing basically 30 years together, 24 years of marriage. And we're still working on progress. I love it. She still has some issues that it doesn't just disappear

overnight. And a lot of that comes from because she is so into this thing. Like this is everything for her, for her family, for kids, for marriage. She's all in. And so she doesn't want to have to go through that again. And so we have to navigate it, you know, for her. I need her at times to kind of let go.

Yeah. I'm going to show you that I trust you and she's gotten much better at that. And then I've got to be willing at times to go, okay, I understand that. I won't do that again. I work on or trying to avoid those things and be conscious of where she's at in life. And that's, you know, that to me is marriage and a nutshell is that, you know, we're all working through different things and we take things and analyze things

different ways. And we got to communicate that and we got to both do our best on both sides and give and take a little bit. I love that you're willing to talk about it. I think that people just a lesson from that, it's you've raised a beautiful family and current and continue to and you guys are sort of a role model couple for a lot of people. I just think it's important for everybody to know just because you have issues in your relationship, that's not necessarily a weakness. It can also be a place where you can actually express the most love for that person is supporting

them through some of those issues. It's easy to love them when they're you're dancing at a wedding together and everyone's dressed up and beautiful. But can you express love to them and concern and care through something that might not even make sense to you, but it's something they're carrying from something else. That's why I wanted to make sure that got in there. And I guarantee, even though I don't know most of it, one of the most amazing parts of this movie I guarantee was going to be the dynamic between you and Brenda her life, your life, your life together. Okay. Two years.

Two years. I can't wait. But you know, just again, I know we're taking too much time. No matter how our relationship is, is that she always challenges me. That, you know, oftentimes we think, I want a relationship with CBC. I don't. I want a woman that every day challenges me to be better, to do better, to think differently. And that's one of the reasons I fell in love

with Renan. I'm still in love with her today. And yeah, sometimes it causes some friction. But I love that because she's not just saying, okay, you're good enough. I don't ever want to be good enough. I want to be the best that I can be. And she makes me better every single day. And sometimes it's true challenging me the best that I can be and she makes me better every single day. And sometimes it's true challenging me in ways that it would be easier just to say, oh, just forget that. Just trust me in that. When I love that about her and love that about our relationship. And so here we are 30 years in and I'm still growing and trying to get better and be in challenge every day.

It's crazy right before this interview, I made a post about that on my Instagram. Literally almost verbatim what you just said. And one of the things I said was that your life sort of becomes a totality of the expectations of your peer group. What they expect of you, the standards they hold. And the closest peer group you have is the romantic intimate relationship that you're in. And then extends to your friends.

I don't want people around me all the time, but just accept me as I am. I want to have fun and laugh and be with them and they love me, but that they also want me to get better and to grow. So I love that. All right. Two last questions. It's so good. And by the way, we're not going too long. Cheesy football question. There's two minutes left in a game. You can give a football to Warner Montana, Mane, Brady or L.way. Who do you want to have the football to drive the last two minutes? You know, because with that ego that you're talking about, I really want to have the football to drive the last two minutes. You know, because I was with my quarterbacks. With that ego that you're talking about,

I really want to say me because I always felt like I was my best in the biggest moment, but I'm going with time. And I just, I think that's what's always separated time from everybody else. And all those guys, I mean, Joe was the same way, you know, a lot of guys the same way, but in the moment, why he's been to 10 Super gold of guys the same way. But in the moment, why he's, you know,

been the 10 Super Bowl, why he's one is because in the moment, he always makes that point, you know, he always does what he needs to in that last two minutes to give his team that opportunity to win. And so as like I said, as much as I would like to say me, and I felt like I was really good at that moment, Tom's the best. Okay. Good. You probably could not go wrong with any of you. That's why you've all got super bows and he'll be in the Hall of Fame with the rest of you. The last question is, is to dreamers

or people who see themselves as an underdog. And again, American underdog on Christmas today, guys. No, I can't know. It's just, now you know it's real when you see it because you heard from the man. But what advice would you? If somebody listened to this man, they're like, look, it's the holiday season, the new years coming up.

I don't want the life I have right now. And I'm in my version of stock and shelves at Hivey Restaurant. And I've got this dream. It's not the NFL, but it's a dream relationship, a dream body, a dream business, probably more than any of that, a dream way I'd feel about me, a dream way I'd feel about me, a dream way I just feel about me,

what advice or counsel would you give them? If they could get up close to someone who's just done it on a level that almost no one's ever done it before, what would you say to those people? The thing I would say is never let your circumstances define it. That to me is what dreaming is all about. And it's too forward. It's when you're in

your supermarket moment, when you're in that position where you go, I don't know what the path is, I don't know where I'm going from here. The coach is telling you, maybe it's time to start thinking beyond football. And you know, I family members that would be like, don't you think it's time to start thinking about what's next? Don't let that define who you are. And by the same token what we were just talking about when you're on the Super Bowl podium, when things are going great, don't let that define who you are. To me, dreamers are the ones as we were just talking about that always want more, that always want to be better, that always want that next that always want to be better, that always want that next stage.

And it's not at the point of sacrificing what you have now and not appreciating what you have now, but it's simply going, this stuff is not defining me, you know, one superbowl win. I don't want that to define me. That doesn't mean I need 10 superbowl wins. Maybe it's the next thing I do.

Maybe it's the thing I do off the bill. Maybe it's how I handle the wilderness after I need 10 Super Bowl wins. Maybe it's the next thing I do. Maybe it's the thing I do off the bill. Maybe it's how I handle the wilderness after I won the Super Bowl. But I'm always looking for, okay, what's next? How can we continue to add to this legacy? How can I continue to add to who I am? Because you talk about being a dreamer and we talk about success all the time.

And too often we want success to be on a school board. That I'm successful if I'm a firm believer that I'm successful if I'm continuing to grow. If I'm continuing to be happy in my situation while striving to be more, to have more, to continue to see, can I push this envelope and can there be more to accomplish? You know, it's so humbling to go,

my life's been made into a movie. I'm 50 years old and I have a movie coming out on Christmas. But then I say to myself, well, let's have a second movie. Like, how cool would that be? Who has two movies? I don't know if that's gonna happen, but I just say to myself, and I'm not young yet.

Yeah. The first chapter was awesome. And I mean, to a point where somebody feels like it's worthy of having a movie made about, that's great. But that's not good. I'm not done yet. If that's all I got after 50 more years, I'm missing it. Now, I'm not doing enough.

And so not to me is what I would say. Is that we all find ourselves in circumstances where it's easy to get complacent? Or it's easy to swallow itself pitty and go, well, I don't want to be here. And for me, it was always like, okay, this isn't the end game. So, you know, I can get hung up in this moment all I want. But to say, I'm going to put one foot in front of the other and I'm going to see what's coming tomorrow. I'm seeing what's coming by years from now and 10 years from now because the past is the past is great as it might have been.

This is not where I'm going to end up. I'm not staying here the rest of my life. And so that's what I would say to all those greeners is that just don't let your circumstances define you good, bad, or indifferent. Keep going, keep searching, keep striving, because that to me is what makes us happy. That's what makes us content. That's what life is all about. It's just, I want to reach my attention. I want to reach my focus. And I don't know if I have yet. You know, a lot of people would say, well, you got a movie about you. You did it. You're there. And I'm saying, well, maybe that's not the movie that I wanted to be in a day. Maybe that's not all there is to the story. And so that's I think the piece of advice I would give to everybody, no matter where, where they find themselves right now.

I'm so grateful we did this today, brother. I mean, I mean it. I'm sitting here in such a immense gratitude. I just absolutely appreciate you. And thank you. I just, I feel like this is a real gift that I can give my audience at a time of year where they need this gift.

And so guys, if you enjoyed today, please make sure you're following Kurt. Are you on Instagram, Kurt? I am. I don't do as much on Instagram. But Kurt 13 Warner really on all those different platforms is where I'm at and in what we're doing. Okay, and ghost the American underdog and share this. This is the time of year where you share an episode like this everybody and it'll bring inspiration and a whole bunch of tactical information to people that you love and care about as well. So God bless all of you. Max out. This is the end mileage. you