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Remembering Kurt Warner, My Mom, and the Winter of 2000

Kurt Warner retired last week—we think, unless he pulls a Brett Favre on us—and I thought back a year ago to how happy I was to see him successful again after several years of struggling to regain the greatness he had shown with the Rams. Last January, before the Cardinals played in the NFC championship, I jotted a few notes about what I remembered of the amazing run Warner had with the Rams in 2000 when my Mom was still alive for what would be her last January. They beat Tampa Bay 11-6 that year. My Mom, who had never been interested in sports and thought it more of a worldly distraction, had gotten interested in football because of Warner, who was a Pentecostal Christian like we were. We had talked about it a few times during the football season as Warner and the Rams were taking the Midwest by storm. She really liked him, the Christian who went from bagging groceries to leading the “Greatest Show on Turf.” So after the Rams’ NFC championship victory, I called to talk to her about the win but she wasn't home. So I gathered my daughters Alyssa, who was seven, and Rachel, who was four, and we left a message to let her know the Rams had won and were going to the Super Bowl. We also told her about how Warner hoisted the NFC championship trophy and shouted "THANK YOU JEE-SUS!" at the end of his post-game interview. We shouted it loudly into the phone, just as Warner had done. “THANK YOU, JEE-SUS!” My Mom loved having that message on her machine and played it over and over again during those winter months.

Two weeks later in 2000, the Rams beat Tennessee when they made the famous goal line stop of the Titans’ receiver on the last play of the game. That turned out to be the only Rams Super Bowl win, and my mother's last football season ever as she died that September in an accident. Warner had another couple of good seasons, but then struggled and had faded to a backup role in Arizona. But last year, he made it all the way back to the Super Bowl in a resurrection of sorts and had another chance to say "Thank you, Jesus!" And seeing it all unfold made me think about my Mom, and Jesus, and the Resurrection.

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