Former Arizona Cardinal Kurt Warner Makes Noise Saying Eli Manning Not Hall Of Famer

by Jess Root on Feb 9, 2012 9:00 AM MST in General Arizona Cardinals News

As Arizona Cardinals fans, Kurt Warner pretty much walks on water. Most would say that his career is worthy of the Hall of Fame. He did not have the longevity, but he had two parts of his career in which he played at a higher level than almost any other quarterback. He went to three Super Bowls, winning one and, more importantly, taking the Cardinals to within a couple of minutes of a Super Bowl win.

Now as a member of the media, he is frequently asked about whether other QBs are worthy to be part of the Hall of Fame. Recently, he made some waves about Eli Manning, saying he is not worthy yet, even with two Super Bowl titles.

Said Warner:

"The kind of quarterback they have been their entire careers, I don't think it is even close between Peyton and Eli. I give Eli credit. Two championships, phenomenal. I would love to have two championships. But I do not believe he is a Hall of Fame player for the first eight years of his career.

"He probably doesn't have to win another championship, but he does, in my opinion, need to be the guy that he was this year for the rest of his career.

"And if he is that guy the rest of his career and finishes with just two championships, then yes, I believe he becomes a Hall of Famer. But just because he has two championships up to this point, he's been extremely inconsistent throughout his career. We all know he can get hot. But that doesn't automatically solidify one player, catapult into Hall of Fame status because his team got hot, he played extremely well for just select periods of his career."

Is Warner right? Or do we look more at being a champion than anything else as a QB? I think Eli is on the right track. But to be able to be worthy of Canton, he will need a few more seasons that are like this season statistically.

After all, Warner will likely be a Hall of Famer. He ought to know.

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I agree with what Warner said

Not a Hall of Famer yet, but if he keeps playing well over the next five years he will be.

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by JoeCB1991 on Feb 9, 2012 9:07 AM MST reply actions

I think he could retire today and still get into the HoF eventually, but we all know he’s not retiring right now. He’s going to play for most likely at least 5 more productive seasons and lock in his case as a no-brainer first ballot HoF. Consider this for a second, what if Eli plays just three more seasons and performs very average (literraly averaging his last five seasons together and adding three seasons of that onto what he’s already accomplished). Here’s what his career numbers would look like:

38,952 yards, 262 TDs and 180 picks

That would put him top 15 in both passing yards and TDs while also owning 2 SB MVP awards. That fellas is a lock for the HoF and that’s assuming very average production over just three more years. If you want to stretch it to five very average years then you’re looking at top 7 all time in yards and top 5 in TDs. He’s a HoF, mark it down.

Go big or go home!! Bet big to win big!!

by Steamin' Beamin' on Feb 9, 2012 9:53 AM MST reply actions

At this point I say no

For the reasoning Kurt gave. He has not played at this level for his whole career and if he can continue to play how he did this year he has nothing to worry about getting into the HoF.

"If Gortat pulls off a real Dream Shake in-game this year I will shave my head.
Mark my words." Piotr Szczesniak 12/12/11 2:12 PM
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