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Kurt Warner on ’99 expansion draft: It would have been fun to win Super Bowl in Cleveland
Posted by Charean Williams on July 13, 2017
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In 1999, the Browns used the 29th spot in the expansion draft on Scott Milanovich of the Buccaneers and then selected Tim Couch No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft. Milanovich never threw a pass for the Browns, and Couch lasted only five seasons, going 22-37 with 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions.
The Browns have had 26 other starting quarterbacks besides Couch, and are yet to find a franchise signal caller.
But the Browns could have had that guy in 1999 when the Rams left Kurt Warner unprotected in the expansion draft. Warner, of course, was a nobody then, having thrown only 11 career passes.
Warner said Thursday nothing would have changed for him, except the team he played for, but the Browns would have won a Super Bowl with him if they had foresight.
“Had I gone to Cleveland, how would my career be different? I have no idea,” Warner said on a Pro Football Hall of Fame conference call. “It would have been fun to win a Super Bowl in Cleveland, though. But I think when you’re going through the process, and you get to this point I always felt like wherever I was, I would be successful.
A lot of people I think when they see my career, they hear or they remember I sat on the bench for four years in college, got cut by the Packers, worked in a grocery store and then won the Super Bowl. That’s kind of the timeline that people see when they hear Kurt Warner.
When I look at the timeline, I look at it and say, ‘Played one year in college, was player of the year in my conference, I played three years in Arena Football, went to the Arena Bowl twice and was voted the best quarterback in the league all three seasons, went to Europe for a year and was the top quarterback statistically the season I played there.
So I look at it and say every time I played I was successful. Everybody else looks at it and says he didn’t play very much. So there were two different perspectives on it.
“So had I gone to Cleveland, I would have expected nothing else except to have success, somehow, someway, some form. Had I been on the field, I would have expected to play well and have success. . . . I believe had I gone there and had a chance to play, I would have helped that franchise go to places they’ve never been before.
Whether it’s arrogance or confidence or whatever you want to call it, that was my mentality when I stepped between the lines on a football field that I was going to make my team and somehow, someway, I was going to find a way to succeed.”
Things worked out just fine for Warner. Trent Green got hurt; Warner got his chance and won a Super Bowl for the Rams, and he enters the Hall of Fame in the Class of 2017. Meanwhile, the Browns’ search for a quarterback continues.
Kurt Warner on ’99 expansion draft: It would have been fun to win Super Bowl in Cleveland
Posted by Charean Williams on July 13, 2017
In 1999, the Browns used the 29th spot in the expansion draft on Scott Milanovich of the Buccaneers and then selected Tim Couch No. 1 overall in the NFL Draft. Milanovich never threw a pass for the Browns, and Couch lasted only five seasons, going 22-37 with 64 touchdowns and 67 interceptions.
The Browns have had 26 other starting quarterbacks besides Couch, and are yet to find a franchise signal caller.
But the Browns could have had that guy in 1999 when the Rams left Kurt Warner unprotected in the expansion draft. Warner, of course, was a nobody then, having thrown only 11 career passes.
Warner said Thursday nothing would have changed for him, except the team he played for, but the Browns would have won a Super Bowl with him if they had foresight.
“Had I gone to Cleveland, how would my career be different? I have no idea,” Warner said on a Pro Football Hall of Fame conference call. “It would have been fun to win a Super Bowl in Cleveland, though. But I think when you’re going through the process, and you get to this point I always felt like wherever I was, I would be successful.
A lot of people I think when they see my career, they hear or they remember I sat on the bench for four years in college, got cut by the Packers, worked in a grocery store and then won the Super Bowl. That’s kind of the timeline that people see when they hear Kurt Warner.
When I look at the timeline, I look at it and say, ‘Played one year in college, was player of the year in my conference, I played three years in Arena Football, went to the Arena Bowl twice and was voted the best quarterback in the league all three seasons, went to Europe for a year and was the top quarterback statistically the season I played there.
So I look at it and say every time I played I was successful. Everybody else looks at it and says he didn’t play very much. So there were two different perspectives on it.
“So had I gone to Cleveland, I would have expected nothing else except to have success, somehow, someway, some form. Had I been on the field, I would have expected to play well and have success. . . . I believe had I gone there and had a chance to play, I would have helped that franchise go to places they’ve never been before.
Whether it’s arrogance or confidence or whatever you want to call it, that was my mentality when I stepped between the lines on a football field that I was going to make my team and somehow, someway, I was going to find a way to succeed.”
Things worked out just fine for Warner. Trent Green got hurt; Warner got his chance and won a Super Bowl for the Rams, and he enters the Hall of Fame in the Class of 2017. Meanwhile, the Browns’ search for a quarterback continues.
