Now that Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner has retired from pro football, the second phase of his legacy begins: his campaign for the Hall of Fame.
This is not to say that Warner will actively pursue that honor. In fact, Warner probably doesn't care. The two-time NFL MVP (1999 and 2001) and five-time Pro Bowler is far more concerned with spending time with his wife, Brenda, and seven children, with his charity work for developmentally disabled children, with spreading his faith.
In fact, when ESPN asked him Friday afternoon if he was really sure this was it, if he was certain he wouldn't get the yearly itch to return like some other fairly famous NFL QB we won't name today, Warner said without the slightest hesitation:
"I know it's right. I didn't want to be one of those guys who retires, then comes back three months later because he misses it. I look forward to the next steps, whatever's out there for my future."
But that future should include the Hall of Fame, if only for the uniqueness of his story.
After all, what other Super Bowl MVP once stocked grocery shelves to make ends meet before finally getting his NFL break?
Beyond that, what other Hall of Famer ever guided two -- we repeat, TWO -- former laughingstocks like the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals to Super Bowls?
You think Tom Brady could get the Detroit Lions to the Super Bowl? You think Peyton Manning could turn around Buffalo? That's who the Rams and Cardinals were before Warner arrived.
That alone -- winning one and losing one with the Rams before the Cards suffered a narrow loss against the Steelers last season -- should earn him a spot in the Hall, if not his own wing.
But it's how Warner performed in those Super Bowls that should probably most cement his place in pro football history. Check the Super Bowl records and the first three names under most passing yards in a single game are 1) Kurt Warner, 2) Kurt Warner, 3) Kurt Warner.
And before anyone mentions that he only won one of those games -- 1999 over our Tennessee Titans inside the Georgia Dome -- consider that in both his Super Bowl defeats, Warner's final offensive possession gave his team the lead.
In other words, if the Rams and Cardinals had had better defenses, Warner might own three Super Bowl MVPs instead of one.
Yes, he really only shined in half of his 12 seasons. But, hey, how many years was Joe Namath a Hall of Fame quarterback after leading the New York Jets to their shocking Super Bowl win in January of 1969?
That's not a knock on Namath, but delivering on his promise to stun the (then) Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III was basically his claim to fame, especially when you consider that he threw 47 more career interceptions than touchdown passes.
But he's deservedly there, if only for the excitement he generated on and off the field and the fact that his single monumental moment pretty cemented the Super Bowl as the biggest event in American sports, as well as forcing the merger of the AFL and NFL.
Yet as a quarterback, Namath's 13-year career is actually less impressive than Warner's 12 seasons, if only for the latter's multiple Super Bowl appearances.
Warner's also got career numbers. In 124 regular-season games, he completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 32,344 yards and 208 touchdowns. As ESPN noted, of the 14 quarterbacks to make the Hall of Fame over the past 25 years, Warner has a better career completion percentage, yards per pass attempt and yards per game. Only Dan Marino had more career 300-yard passing games.
And, always, there are nine playoff wins in 13 opportunities.
So why walk away at 38, when Brett Favre just threw 33 touchdowns to just seven interceptions during the regular-season at the age of 40?
"It's all based on timing," Warner said on Friday. "I wanted to prove (the Cardinals) weren't a one-year wonder. But then in the middle of this season I started to be pulled in the other direction."
In the next-to-last game of his career, Warner threw for more touchdowns (five) than incompletions (4) in a 51-45 playoff win over the Green Bay Packers. It earned him the second highest passer rating in NFL playoff history (154.1) and made him the oldest player to throw that many TD passes in a playoff game, numbers that would surely impress any Hall of Fame voter.
But with Warner, there is something more, just in case the Hall of Fame needs it.
As former teammate Aeneas Williams told ESPN on Friday, "When I think of Kurt, I can't think of any other player that has the potential to impact you just as much off the field as he does on the field. His philanthropy and what he does on the field, I believe, is a rarity."
And rarities -- be they Namath, Marino, Favre or Warner -- are who the Hall of Fame is supposed to enshrine.