When the news first hit that Kurt Warner was going to sign with the Cardinals, I was a) a beat writer for the team at the East Valley Tribune before my life at azcardinals.com and b) covering an Arizona Rattlers game in downtown Phoenix. I pounded out a story about Warner for the newspaper in the press box sometime in the first half, if I recall correctly.

Warner was a name, for sure. But he was already three years removed from starting for a team for an entire season. Hindsight dictates that it was, of course, franchise-altering, but no one knew it at the time. Except maybe Kurt.

Whatever ever happened with Warner, he never wavered in his belief in himself, including when he first signed with the Cardinals through the roller coaster of the early part of his Arizona tenure.

"I get a chance to rewrite my story, and I get a chance to hopefully rewrite the story of the Arizona Cardinals," he said when he arrived.

I vividly remember a point when Warner was playing so well -- it was in Seattle, I think 2008, but I guess it could've been 2009 -- when I was sitting the press box watching Kurt spin another completion to Anquan or Fitz and thinking, "You need to appreciate this era, because enjoy the greatness. It doesn't come around often."

I did. That moment was burned into my brain, popping up often until Carson Palmer arrived. After, too.