Heroes

Every child needs a hero. When I was a kid I had a ton of them. Athletes like Mickey Mantle, Roger Staubach and Roger Maris. Astronauts like John Glenn and Gordon Cooper. Politicians like Robert Kennedy. These were men who could do no wrong by my take. While I knew they all had human failings, I didn't know what they were, and didn't want to know. Whatever good there is in my character is partly due to the type of people I dreamed about being when I was a boy.

In 1999 Kurt Warner came out of nowhere and lit up the world of a thirteen year old who was the most important guy in my life, son Rob. It was a story almost unbelievable. The football hero who was sacking groceries one year and leading a team to the Super Bowl the next. And not just any team, our team, the St. Louis Rams. I don't know how many games we attended that year but it seems like we were at all of them. While we didn't make it to the Super Bowl, we were there for the 1999 NFC Championship when the Rams beat the Bucs on a 4th quarter touchdown from Warner to Ricky Proehl. Rob and I were standing near the exits, watching that perfect pass, and then bolting for the door so I could catch a flight.

Kurt Warner came into our world just months after the president of the united states was impeached for a series of moral failings, a hero who let down my son and daughters and a whole generation of their peers. It was also the same year that Rob's grandfather, my dad, passed away, and one of the biggest men in his life was gone. And while no one could replace a grandfather, Kurt Warner was a clean living, football flinging, hard working amazing athlete who came into our lives when we needed him most, and when a kid really needed a hero.

He was back again this weekend. Larger than life. Leading the former St. Louis Cardinals football team in the Super Bowl. No longer the fairy tale story, now one of the greats of the game, a future hall of famer. He'll always be special to our family, for the example he set on the field and off.