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Cardinals' Kurt Warner honored with "Call to Courage" Award

April 26, 2008

Athletes in Action honored Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner with its Call to Courage Award.

Former Buffalo Bills quarterback Frank Reich presented Warner with the award during a ceremony April 19.

Warner downplayed the award, pointing instead to several examples of people who sacrificed tremendously because of their faith in Jesus Christ.

The Arizona Cardinals quarterback, who was twice selected as the NFL’s most valuable player and was named the 2000 Super Bowl MVP, cited what he thought were better examples of people who gave everything to live their faith in Jesus Christ:

• A preacher on the doomed Titanic gave his life jacket to another passenger who said he refused to believe in God, even in the face of death.

• A monk, on viewing gladiator battles in Rome’s Colosseum for the first time, walked onto the field and commanded the fighting to stop. A gladiator ran his sword through the monk and the impact of the death brought an end to gladiator battles at the arena.

• Eric Liddell, a British track star featured in the movie, “Chariots of Fire,” refused to participate in a qualifying race for the 1924 Olympics because it was held on a Sunday, the Lord’s Day.

“Do I have this kind of courage?” Warner said. “I’m not sure I’m there yet.”

“Courage,” Warner said, “is a byproduct of passion.”

In the NFL, he said he encounters players who vigorously pursue their goal of making it to the big time, but then once they have the contract, “the pursuit stops.”

In the spiritual life, Warner said, it cannot be like that.

“God wants us to chase after him,” he said.

“I love the game of football, but am I willing to sacrifice everything, fame and glory, for another [person]?” Warner asked in quoting New Testament scriptures in which Christ said of those who follow him that they must be prepared to give up even their own lives.