Larry Fitzgerald on Kurt Warner: I miss him

Robert Klemko, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

TEMPE, Ariz. — When was the last time Kurt Warner was asked to come out of retirement?

"Larry asks me once a week," says Warner, now an NFL Network analyst who left the game following the 2009 season.

Arizona Cardinals Pro Bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald's requests are tongue-in-cheek, Warner says, but it's clear the two have a kinship on and off the football field that Fitzgerald has yet to remotely approach with any quarterback since Warner, who retired one season removed from leading the Cardinals to Super Bowl XLIII, a 27-23 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It's been a carousel of quarterbacking mediocrity since, with Kevin Kolb, John Skelton and Ryan Lindley contributing to last season's 5-11 finish. At 29, Fitzgerald is feeling his football mortality and eager to win a championship.

Do the Cards have the passer who can lead them all the way on the roster? Fitzgerald pauses and answers carefully.

"I don't feel as though we can't win with anybody," he says. "Those guys have a lot of ability. I have confidence that we can win ball games with anybody that we have here. We've won with Kevin, we've won with John. It's hard to say, 'Are they Super Bowl quarterbacks?' Super Bowl quarterbacks are termed by a lot of different things."

Yet Fitzgerald knows the habits of one Super Bowl quarterback intimately. He taught Warner to text on his flip phone in 2005 and in recent years has shot Warner reminders that he's needed in cleats. He joined his ex-teammate last weekend for his annual flag football charity tournament at Cardinals headquarters, the "Ultimate Football Experience Presented by Amway's Nutrilite" which benefited Warner's charity, First Things First.

Warner, who will star in a new reality television show on USA Network next month, paced nervously in advance of the tournament as he prepared to give a sermon on second chances.

"I've never seen him nervous. Not on the football field," Fitzgerald says. "He might have been, but it never came across to me that he was. I guess, when you're preaching something that could change the outcome of people's lives, it's not like throwing football passes. Kurt takes it as a privilege that he has that opportunity.

"What I really miss is the day to day interaction with him. Being able to sit down and talk to him about life. I miss that so much. Just the strength, his conviction, I'll miss that more than any touchdown pass or anything that you can ever do on an athletic field. But I do miss him on the football field, too."

Warner, 41, says it makes him feel good to get texts and calls from teammates teasing him for a comeback, but he never considered it. Instead, he's focusing all of his resources on charity work and his television career.

Warner's new project is a home for special needs adults in Arizona for which he hopes to break ground later this year. His adopted son, Zachary, lives in a special needs home in St. Louis which the family regularly visits. It's Warner's goal to build the "Treasure House" near Phoenix for his son and other adults like him.

Warner's new show, The Moment, will debut April 11. In it, the two-time NFL MVP offers real people second chances in life. Warner was released by the Green Bay Packers as a rookie in 1994 and spent four years out of the league before leading the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl following the 1999 season.

"Life comes full circle so often," he says," to think that I'm sitting here and have the opportunities I have because of a second chance. So the ability to share a second chance with somebody else is a great opportunity.

"Our legacy is never going to be how much we have in our bank account or how many touchdown passes we've thrown. It's going to be, 'How do we impact other people?' That's my goal in all of this."

Since meeting Warner, Fitzgerald has pondered his legacy, too, and has taken 10 offseason charity trips to Africa. He left Monday for a week-long trip to Senegal along with Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Anquan Boldin and Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White on behalf of Oxfam America.

After that, it's back to work for the Cardinals, who have but $3.3 million in cap space, one big question mark at quarterback and a six-time Pro Bowler itching to return to the game's summit.

"That sense of urgency hit me about four years ago after the Super Bowl," Fitzgerald says. "I realized how incredible that opportunity was that we had. From that point on, that's been my only pursuit."

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Follow Robert Klemko on Twitter @RobertKlemko