It was just Saturday when former Cardinals scout Dave Razzano made some noise by claiming that former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner retired after the 2009 season because of being lowballed by management with his contract offer the previous offseason. While the thought of such a thing by the Cardinals is not too crazy sounding, Warner doing that would be different.
Regardless, he came out on Twitter to put to rest that rumor.
2set record straight: I did NOT retire due 2 anything $$$ related! I retired bec I sacrificed enuf 4 the game & didn't want 2 do it anymore!less than a minute ago via web 
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Kurt Warner
kurt13warner
To be honest, this is exactly what we would have expected him to say. And like I said in Sunday's post, based on what he has said multiple times in public, to have retired for that reason would fly in the face of his image.
Again, (and with a clarification from Sunday's post), he did not walk away from just the $4 million in base salary, he also walked away from half of his $15 million signing bonus -- a total of $11.5 million.
Now, before the naysayers come out and point this out, the tweet he sent out simply states he didn't want to do it anymore. They could say that had he been paid more (in line with a Top-5 QB) he would have wanted to.
Maybe so, but if he were that upset about the contract, why would he not have simply signed where he would have gotten more money? Why wait a year and give up over $11 million?
The truth is that negotiating can cause hard feelings any time. That's the nature of the beast.
I am glad that Warner put this issue to bed. There will naturally be those who will say he simply said what he had to to avoid embarrassment.
But it sounds more like Warner is upset that the issue has come up. And he should be.