TOUGH TALKS: From Food Stamps to Hall of Fame with Kurt Warner

Who has won MVP of The Super Bowl AND had a movie created about his life story? My latest Tough Talks Podcast guest, that’s who. Kurt Warner.

Kurt’s Cinderella story is easily one of the best in NFL history (that’s why they made the movie, American Underdog, about it).

Through countless trials and tribulations, Kurt and his remarkable wife, Brenda, continuously chose to believe in his passion and his dream until he pulled it off.

From food stamps to the Hall of Fame.

And according to him, they’re just getting started!

More about Kurt:

Here is the AI generated transcript of the whole podcast:

[00:00:00] Chris Dorris: I would be way less obsessed with my own success and way more committed to leaving a legacy and making a difference. Yeah.

[00:00:11] Kurt Warner: Yeah. I hear all of those. Yeah. And, you know, I think different things, you know, intertwine with different things because I do believe, you know, a spirit of excellence and a level of personal success can lead to opportunities for impact that are different.

[00:00:31] Kurt Warner: you know, if you didn’t have that. So, I think so much of it. but again, I think it comes back to why am I chasing the success? Like, what is the ultimate goal? You know, what is the ultimate focus of my life? Is it for me? Or is it to do these things to have impact and have a, you know, a further reach than I have?

[00:00:53] Chris Dorris: Most of us never learned how to train our brains, which is why most of us needlessly settle, struggle, and we’re a [00:01:00] stuffer. My name is Chris Doris and I wanna make brain training mainstream. This is my series, tough Talks, conversations on Mental Toughness. I’m interviewing bad asses from all walks of life on what mental toughness means to them and their unique approaches to strengthening

[00:01:15] Kurt Warner: their minds.

[00:01:19] Kurt Warner: Hello,

[00:01:20] Chris Dorris: welcome back to Tough Talks, conversations on Mental Toughness. I am your host, Chris Doris. And before I introduce our remarkable. Guests today, our typical one housekeeping item, which is if you’re not getting your, daily dose mental toughness tips in 30 seconds or less, delivered to your email inbox every morning at about 6:00 AM no matter where you are on the planet every day of the year.

[00:01:45] Chris Dorris: If you’re not getting my blog posts every Tuesday, and if you’re not getting notifications of these new Tough Talks podcast episodes, let’s go ahead and take care of that, shall we, quite virtually, effortlessly by going to christopher [00:02:00] doris.com/lists. LSTs christopher doris.com/lists. Put your name in email, click and you get the goodies.

[00:02:10] Chris Dorris: Now, if you’re looking at this, you can see the name of our remarkable guest today. His name is Kurt Warner. Kurt is a former N F L superstar. He played in the NFL for 12. Seasons primarily with the Rams and the Cardinals. He is known as the greatest undrafted n f l player of all time. we’ll get into that.

[00:02:46] Chris Dorris: he a two-time most valuable player of the league. He’s a Super Bowl MVP of Super Bowl 34. And, his story is one of the greatest Cinderella stories in NFL history after he played college football in northern Iowa. But he sat the bench for [00:03:00] three years, then he kicked ass in one year. but then he spent, he didn’t get drafted.

[00:03:08] Chris Dorris: He didn’t get drafted, and that was a bummer for him. Oh, you gotta watch this movie, American Underdog. They made a move about this guy said he was signed by the green Bay Packers for like a minute. They released him before the season even started. And then he worked in a damn grocery store. He worked the,he was, he didn’t have, you know, he met his now wife Brenda fell in love.

[00:03:32] Chris Dorris: She was in the Marines and she was in, then her son had a tragic accident and she, you know, discharged from the Marines and she was going to nursing school. And the two of ’em were just trying to, you know, make ends meet. And, he’s working in the graveyard shift at a grocery store, stocking shelves.

[00:03:54] Chris Dorris: And and then he ends up playing, but he doesn’t lose his faith. Right. He [00:04:00] ends up, that’s right around when, no, that is when the Arena football league started. And the guy who started it, the guy who started is named Jim Foster. He came and found. Kurt and said, yeah, I want you to come play on our arena team.

[00:04:15] Chris Dorris: And he said, all right, at least it’s football, so let’s go to that. And he did that for a few years and he kicked ass. Then the Rams says, who we got? This guy? Who’s this guy? And he went to the Rams, to the St. Louis Rams. And then he got his shot, ma’am. their starting quarterback went down and he ended up having, an epic year, right?

[00:04:37] Chris Dorris: they called the offense of that team, the greatest show on Turf. They went to the Super Bowl and they won it, and he won the M V mvp. The rest, as they say, is history. And he’s now in the N F NFL Hall of Fame. He’s our second N F NFL Hall of Famer. Mike Hayes was our first, N F L Hall of Fame guest here on Top Talks.

[00:04:57] Chris Dorris: And I wanna also spend time with Kurt. [00:05:00] Not just talking about his remarkable story and the mo the movie is just, American Underdog. So beautiful. Please watch it. It’s so have tissues. And, and then we’re gonna, we’re gonna spend some time talking about how he’s using his life now, because it’s really profound all that he’s involved with in terms of giving back, you know, and contributing to, the betterment of humanity is really, it.

[00:05:22] Chris Dorris: It’s just, it’s so, all of it’s spectacular. So anyway, without any further ado, he’s waiting for us. Let’s go find him. Kurt, where you at, man? And what do you know? There he is. M v P of Super Bowl 34. Mr. Kurt Warner. What’s up

[00:05:36] Kurt Warner: man? How much man life is, life is busy. Life is good. I’m at that stage where I get to, chase my kids around and, and watch them shine a little bit.

[00:05:45] Kurt Warner: So I have no complaints. I’m semi-retired. A lot of busy stuff to do and things that I love doing, but, but life is really good right now.

[00:05:53] Chris Dorris: I love to hear that and I can’t wait to hear. We’re gonna wrap up with all that. I wanna, we’re gonna talk quite a bit about, you know, [00:06:00] what you’re up to nowadays because you are up to a lot.

[00:06:03] Chris Dorris: And, I wanted to share with the audience as we get started here, something that you said to me in an email exchange that I thought was very profound. And, you know, in preparation for these interviews, I’m always asking the guests like, what is, what’s the most important thing in your world these days that you want people to know about in terms of what you’re up to and what’s going on for you?

[00:06:29] Chris Dorris: And your response was amazing. You said, for me it’s just living a life of excellence, impacting and loving people. exclamation point. And that was pa So when I read that, I thought, man, I’d love this guy even more now.

[00:06:47] Kurt Warner: the exclamation point is how I always text.

[00:06:49] Kurt Warner: So, I feel like everything we say should have some emphasis on it, but, you know, but I just feel like that’s, to me, you know, as I’ve gone through life and as I’ve evolved and as I’ve been in so many different [00:07:00] places of what was the main thing at different times in my life, I’ve come to realize, you know, whether it be, you know, my, my faith leading me there, or whether it just be, you know, chasing after my dreams, that, you know, first thing that, that I always want to do is I wanna live a life of excellence.

[00:07:19] Kurt Warner: I want people to see me. I want people to see what I do and say, this guy doesn’t do anything halfway. This guy doesn’t do anything. That’s just good enough. And so I may not do a lot of things, you know, I may not have a lot of hobbies or a lot of things I get involved with, but the things I get involved with, I want to be really good.

[00:07:35] Kurt Warner: I want it to be done in an excellent way because I think that represents who I want to be about. you know, what I want people to remember about me. And then, you know, as I said, maybe most importantly, who I represent the most, you know, in my faith. And then I think the other aspects of it is just that, you know, what is your legacy at the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, you know, if all people remembering for throwing touchdown passes and [00:08:00] playing in Super Bowls, I’ve missed it.

[00:08:02] Kurt Warner: you know, I’ve missed a month. And so I wanna leave an impact on people. And, you know, it doesn’t have to be this profound, huge impact that everybody in the world, you know, knows, you know, what I did or how I, you know, influence the community or whatever. To me, it’s just as much about, you know, every relationship.

[00:08:21] Kurt Warner: You know, the people I’m around, the people that I get a chance to interact with, the people that I work with, you know, my family, to just know that, you know, I’ve impacted them in a positive way, in whatever relationship it is that we have. and I think a huge part of that is just loving people. I think we live in a world where there are so many differences between so many of us.

[00:08:42] Kurt Warner: And it’s so easy to get hung up with those differences or tell somebody they should be more like us or, you know, because we don’t understand them. You know, we keep everybody at arm’s length. And to me it’s really just, you know, I think God’s called us to, to love people and, you know, there’s one mission Jesus had on earth that was just [00:09:00] to love people.

[00:09:00] Kurt Warner: And I think too often we get caught up with all the other stuff and we lose sight of just, you know, having a relationship and loving people. And so, you know, when I take that back to you, that’s, that really is, you know, my goal of mission. And I’ve got, you know, dreams and business things that I’m involved in, professions that I want to be good at.

[00:09:18] Kurt Warner: But at the end of the day, at the root of everything that, that I want to be are those things that I mentioned to you. And, and that’s what I wanna spend the rest of my life doing.

[00:09:28] Chris Dorris: Amen to that. how responsible is Brenda for your

[00:09:32] Kurt Warner: faith? Oh, she extremely responsible. I was raised in the church, in the Catholic church.

[00:09:38] Kurt Warner: My mom was very steadfast and devouted in terms of, you know, went to Catholic school all through high school. We went to church every Sunday, you know, that was a priority, for her. So, you know, so I grew up in that mold and with that background and, you know, hearing the stories and you know, having a religion class and all of those things, but it never really became a personal [00:10:00] thing for me, you know, and it’s something that I’ve learned as I’ve got seven kids, is that so much we want to, you know, take our beliefs and our faith and we wanna just project it onto our kids and to be like, okay, I believe this and I took you to church, so you have to believe this.

[00:10:15] Kurt Warner: And what I’ve realized is that it just doesn’t work that way. That we’ve all gotta figure out our own direction. We have to all figure out our own path and mom’s path hopeful be my path. And my path won’t be my kids path. and so, you know, when I was going through it, you know, I did all the things I was supposed to do, but it never really become personal for me.

[00:10:36] Kurt Warner: It had never really become something that I had taken ownership of. And so I was just kind of wallowing through life and, you know, had a faith, but it was what it was. and Brenda was, you know, when I got in a relationship with Brenda, she was, very committed in her faith in what she believed and that it was about a relationship and it was about, you know, having that connection and making it personal, which [00:11:00] is something that I had never really done.

[00:11:01] Kurt Warner: And so she really challenged me in that and why I believed what I believed. And, you know, with your beliefs, you know, where does it say that in the Bible or how do you interpret that? and all of these things that really just challenge you challenged for the first to really dive in and search for the answers.

[00:11:18] Kurt Warner: You know, and a big part of it was the challenge that she made to me. but ultimately it, it helped me to search for the answers for myself and why I was going to believe and why I was going to follow the path that I was going to follow. but it had to be personal and it had to be something that I was convicted about.

[00:11:34] Kurt Warner: And so she was, you know, very much in the forefront of challenging me to figure out what my faith was going to be, what I was going to believe, and how I was going to apply that to my everyday life. And so, you know, so indebted, I get to wake up every day, you know, next to my best friend and, obviously a woman that I love and the mother of my children and all of that.

[00:11:55] Kurt Warner: But, I’m so indebted to her that, you know, it’s probably the, you know, the biggest thing [00:12:00] that’s ever happened in my life was getting that direction to know what I’m living for. And so I get to wake up.

[00:12:07] Chris Dorris: That’s the mic drop moment. Yeah. Can we slow that down? I do this. It’s

[00:12:12] Kurt Warner: okay. You just

[00:12:13] Chris Dorris: dropped.

[00:12:14] Chris Dorris: So, can you repeat that knowing?

[00:12:17] Kurt Warner: No, just knowing what I’m living for. Knowing what you’re living for. Yeah. Knowing what the focus of my life is going to be and not just, you know, in one facet, or not just at this stage of my life, but knowing what I’m living for. And so every interaction that I have, every profession that I take part in, every, relationship that, you know, that I’m working through, I know what I’m trying to do in life.

[00:12:42] Kurt Warner: I know what I’m trying to do in those relationships and in those situations. and that is what guides me. You know, it’s not all the other stuff that we think about too often is the success and the trophies and the, and, you know, the bank accounts and all of that stuff. it’s about something bigger than that [00:13:00] and living in a way, that represents something bigger than myself.

[00:13:03] Kurt Warner: And, you know, we’re so important for me to figure that out. and now that has been kind of the underlying theme or the one thing that has been woven through my entire life. No matter what I do, you know, no matter you know, where I’m going, no matter, you know, what type of situation it is. That’s the one thing that I’m grounded in, that I believe, is a common thread through my entire life.

[00:13:28] Chris Dorris: You know, that, that’s so huge. That’s a takeaway right there. Everyone. If you don’t have an answer to the question, what am I living for, or what is my life purpose? Then create the time to get that answer. Yeah. You know, Kurt, when I think the coolest course that I ever took in my life was in graduate school here at Arizona State in, counseling psychology, and it was on death, and it was really interesting.

[00:13:54] Chris Dorris: And the most interesting thing was a research study that they did with centenarians. So these are people who are over a hundred years [00:14:00] old. So they’re on death’s doorstep. Right. and like our mortality seems to have an effective way of clearing out bullshit. Right. So it’s like, you know, like, so people who are on death’s doorstep don’t have any reason to bs so what they asked these older people, what would you do different?

[00:14:19] Chris Dorris: Looking back now that you got all this clarity and you just mentioned there was amazing uniformity of responses. Yeah. And three of the top responses were, I would take more risks, I would slow down and appreciate how magical life is without me even having to do anything. Just appreciate. Yes. Third one is, the one you just said is, I would be way less obsessed with my own success and way more committed to leaving a legacy and making a difference.

[00:14:49] Chris Dorris: Yeah.

[00:14:51] Kurt Warner: Yeah. I hear all of those, you know, I think different things, you know, intertwine with different things because. I do believe, [00:15:00] you know, a spirit of excellence and a level of personal success can lead to opportunities for impact that are different. you know, if you didn’t have that.

[00:15:12] Kurt Warner: So, I think so much of it, but again, I think it comes back to why am I chasing the success? Like, what is the ultimate goal? You know, what is the ultimate focus of my life? Is it for me or is it to do these things to have impact and have a, you know, a further reach than I have right now?

[00:15:32] Kurt Warner: yeah. So you know, that’s a great question. I, you know, I often, you know, have had people ask me to you, what would you go back and tell your younger self for? Or what would you do differently? And I, you know, I sometimes struggle with the answer because I think, you know, it’s easy to go back and say a few of these things, but I also think.

[00:15:48] Kurt Warner: My journey is what made me who I am and my journey is what convicted me in certain things and prepared me for what was coming next. And so, you know, sometimes it’s like, I [00:16:00] would’ve said this. And so I could have avoided that. And for me, you know, for a lot of, of my career, I would’ve said the same thing.

[00:16:07] Kurt Warner: Like, man, I didn’t want to go through that. I didn’t want to have this story. I didn’t want to have this journey. And then when I find myself on the other side, I’m like, oh my gosh, how grateful am I that I got the journey that I have? Because each step of the way taught me, prepared me for something else.

[00:16:23] Kurt Warner: And each step of the way shaped me, into the person that I am today. And, you know, when I did get into, you know, my success playing football, I already knew who I was. I knew what I was living for, and I knew what the focus of that entire period of time,and really the rest of my life was going to be about.

[00:16:40] Kurt Warner: And so I look at myself so grateful because some people fall into that success. Really early, you know, where they find themselves in a position they’ve never been before and they’ve never really prepared for, and they don’t really know how to handle it. And so I realized I needed so many different things, and even the stuff that I would’ve loved to have [00:17:00] told myself to maybe had a avoided something here or there, I look back and go, you know what?

[00:17:06] Kurt Warner: I learned it, you know, the only reason I have something to tell myself now is because I’ve learned something along the way that I would go back and tell myself because I’ve already learned it. And, you know, so for me, I’m just grateful that I had the opportunities and that things in my path taught me the things that I needed to know to be the kind of person that, that I wanted to be, to live the kinda life that, that I wanna live.

[00:17:31] Kurt Warner: And so, you know, I think it, it’s a, seems to be a simple question. What would I go back and tell myself or what would I go back and change? but I don’t think I would tell myself or change anything because, oh, that’s good learning. That, you know, that it really became rooted in me, and how important it was.

[00:17:47] Kurt Warner: And ultimately, those would be the things that would change me. Do you know Jalen Hearth? you know, I know him somewhat. obviously we’ve met, a number of times and then we’ve communicated a number of times, but I can’t say that we’re [00:18:00] extremely close, but, but I hope the relationship grows, over the year.

[00:18:03] Kurt Warner: Yeah.

[00:18:03] Chris Dorris: I’m gonna make him watch this video. you heard about his

[00:18:06] Kurt Warner: contract this morning? I did not, no. Oh,

[00:18:11] Chris Dorris: he’s the highest paid player in the history of the league now. Really? 200, 250 5 million for five years.

[00:18:18] Kurt Warner: Wow. I did not hear that. And,

[00:18:21] Chris Dorris: you know, I just thought of that. he, and he’s a good dude.

[00:18:23] Chris Dorris: He’s already doing amazing things in the community, so, yep. He’s off to the right start. Now,I wanna go back and check out some history. So, first of all, I gotta ask you this. When whoever it was that reached out to you and said, Hey man, we would like to do a movie on your life that had to feel pretty good.

[00:18:43] Kurt Warner: And what was that like? You know, it’s,it’s surreal moments when somebody says that. I think the one thing is, you know, I’d heard people mention that all the way back to 1999 when, you know, I came on the scene that, you know, oh, one day, you know, they’ll make a movie about this. you know, so it wasn’t like it was a brand [00:19:00] new thing when somebody bought it to me.

[00:19:02] Kurt Warner: but yeah, I mean it’s, you know, it’s an interesting thing because it’s very humbling when somebody tells you that they believe your story, can impact people. that’s obviously why they make movies about people and stories that they believe Yeah. Can touch people. So it’s very humbling when somebody says, Hey, we believe your story can touch people.

[00:19:20] Kurt Warner: but at the same time, you know, what I came to realize through the process is how much. I appreciate having a different, unique story, because, you know, I hear the story all the time is that, you know, years ago when my youngest son was, you know, in the heart of being an athlete, and it was right during that time where Nike had all those different t-shirts with different, you know, sayings or, you know, quotes on him.

[00:19:45] Kurt Warner: And I remember going to one of his games and he had a shirt on and said one day they’ll make a movie about me. And I remember asking him, you know, why are they gonna make a movie about you? And of course his answer, would probably been the same answer that I gave when I was his age, was, because I’m gonna be [00:20:00] really good at whatever sport it is.

[00:20:01] Kurt Warner: I’m gonna be really good at playing basketball. I’m really good at football. So they’ll make a movie about me. And I remember telling ’em, you know what, there’s a lot of people that are really good at what they do, you know, that, that are, you know, one of the best in the world at what they do. They don’t make stories or movies about everybody that’s really good.

[00:20:22] Kurt Warner: They make movies about people that have a unique story, that do it differently than other people. And, and that to me is what this movie kind of represents, is it represents the idea that, it’s okay to have a different story and it’s okay to have a different journey. And most of us have our supermarket moments, you know, most of us have those moments when we find ourselves in a place we don’t wanna be and we’re not really sure how we got there.

[00:20:48] Kurt Warner: And maybe more importantly, we don’t know how to get out of here. We have those moments. And so much of life is about what you do with those moments. And that’s what I’ve come to appreciate about my journey and about the [00:21:00] movie, is that it resonates with a lot of people. Because it’s very real. And although it doesn’t look exactly like somebody else’s story, so many of us have these stories where it doesn’t always play out the way we want it to.

[00:21:13] Kurt Warner: But it’s about what we do with the moments that we’ve been given, how we allow those to shape us, what we take from every one of those moments. And you know, how we continue to believe and have confidence in ourselves and move forward and know that just because we’re here now doesn’t mean this is where we’re going to end up.

[00:21:31] Kurt Warner: You know, we always say in our family, never let your circumstances define you. That too often in life, we let our circumstances define us, whether it’s, you know, us and saying to ourselves, oh man, I’m working in a grocery store. Man, there’s no way nobody’s ever gone from a grocery store to the nfl.

[00:21:47] Kurt Warner: There’s no way this is gonna happen. and we start to define ourselves by where we’re at, or we allow other people to define us. And we start to believe what other people say because the other people look at us and go, dude, that dude’s in our grocery store. That dude’s [00:22:00] got no chance. Right? He’s never gonna make it.

[00:22:02] Kurt Warner: We start listening to, you know, those outside, voices telling us why we can’t do something, because of where we’re at in this moment. And I think so much of life is not about where we find ourselves, but what we do With those circumstances and how we move through those circumstances. And that to me is really what, you know, our movie and my story is all about.

[00:22:24] Kurt Warner: And what I’ve realized is that, you know, it, it lets people know it’s okay to have a different journey and that there’s going to be times where things don’t always play out in your favor. but you can use those to catapult you to be able to become what you want to become or what to do, what you wanna do.

[00:22:41] Kurt Warner: and so I was very humbled by, you know, the idea that somebody wanted to make a movie. I’ve been very humbled by the response and the number of people that have been touched and the number of different people that have been touched. I think that’s the cool thing is that the backdrop is obviously a sports story or a football story, [00:23:00] but that’s not what the movie is about.

[00:23:01] Kurt Warner: The movie is a life movie. whether it’s my wife’s story or my story, or my son’s story, or our story together. there’s so much in there that can touch people in different places from different view viewpoints. and that’s been the coolest part of the story and been the coolest part of having the movie, has been seeing how it touches people and how you have to embrace your journey and your story, and take it for what it is, and then hope somewhere along the way that you can use your story to impact the lives of other people.

[00:23:31] Chris Dorris: It moved the hell outta me, man. I told you in a text that I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t know I was going to need a box of Kleenex, man. Yeah. I’m seriously, I wept.

[00:23:40] Kurt Warner: We’ve gotten that, we’ve that response numerous times.

[00:23:43] Chris Dorris: Lot of look, if you don’t shed a tear at least once you might wanna check your pulse.

[00:23:49] Chris Dorris: The movie, by the way, for those that don’t know, is called American Underdog. And I watched it on Hulu. I think it, you can find a lot of places that you, it’s all mind, it’s all over the place, and it’s absolutely [00:24:00] spectacular. Now, there are a few scenes that I wanted to, talk with you about. I wanted to see how you felt about these, if it was accurate, and, because these are a couple, these are some moments that stood out for me as I was watching.

[00:24:14] Chris Dorris: I was taking notes as I was watching the movie in preparation for this, and there was a moment, okay, so for those, for the maybe two people that don’t know your story already, that are listening to or are watching this, you played at Northern Iowa. You played football in northern Iowa. Then you,you, after that, you got an agent, which you were pretty, you seemed pretty pumped about, and you went into the draft and you didn’t get drafted and then started a circumstance.

[00:24:47] Chris Dorris: Right then started a period of time, which I would love to open up because you know this podcast ex, it’s about mental toughness. Right? Right. And the reason I even do is because we didn’t have mental toughness training in school, [00:25:00] which I think is nonsense and needs to change. Right. We weren’t educated on how to respond well to all of life.

[00:25:06] Chris Dorris: Right. And that’s exactly what you just gave a nice lecture on, right? Is respo, you just basically define novel toughness for me, which is the ability to respond to life with mastery, all of it, right? Strengthen your response dash ability, your ability to respond to life. So here is a period, all right, here’s the scene.

[00:25:27] Chris Dorris: You’re at a grocery store, right? You’re checking out and you asked the clerk if the store accepted food stamps. Is that

[00:25:40] Kurt Warner: historically accurate? it is accurate. you know, and the background of it is the fact that, you know, at the time, I didn’t have a job. I was trying to chase my dream, but I was dating Brenda, who was a single mom up to, one of our children, that I would ultimately adopt.

[00:25:56] Kurt Warner: Zach, who’s obviously primary figure in the movie Dealing with disability, [00:26:00] suffered a traumatic brain injury when he was young. and so, you know, Brenda was actually in the Marines, so she had served in the Marines and then her son got injured. So she got discharged from the Marines.

[00:26:10] Kurt Warner: From the Marines and you know, was trying to make ends meet. And at that particular time, taking care of a son that was injured. she ultimately got a divorce from her first husband. she was living with her parents. And so, that was where the food stamps background came from, is that, you know, she was living quite often off the food stamps.

[00:26:28] Kurt Warner: And so as we were, you know, getting to know each other and trying to figure out what life was gonna look like and how I was gonna do what I wanted to do, or what we needed to do to take care of our family, yeah, the, she would send me oftentimes to the grocery store where, where we had to purchase things with this dick.

[00:26:44] Chris Dorris: That’s, it was an amazing scene, right? Because here you are, you’re hopeful, you’re like, you’re on the cu you’re sitting there watching the draft going, come on, I probably won’t go till tomorrow, but come on. You know? And like to realize your dream of playing in the N F L and [00:27:00] moments later, you’re buying shit with food stamps.

[00:27:02] Chris Dorris: Yeah. It’s a powerful scene, man. Yeah.

[00:27:06] Kurt Warner: For the application, you know, and again, its, you know, there’s so many things in there. You know, a lot of people know my story. they don’t know my wife’s story, who has been through stuff. she’s been through a lot of stuff. and a lot of difficulties.

[00:27:19] Kurt Warner: And that’s what I love so much about the movie is obviously it was called American Underdog and everybody, you know, automatically associated it with me, which I fully understand. but I feel like you could look at Brenda and go, okay, she’s an American underdog, and you could look at Zach and go, he’s an American underdog and it’s a family of underdogs and we all have our unique journeys and stories and struggles, and tough times and moments where, you know, you wanted to give up, all of those different things, you know, intertwined together.

[00:27:48] Kurt Warner: but at the same time, I think we all took inspiration from each other at different times to go in. Okay. she could have given up and cheated. So that inspired me. Where Zach. You know, [00:28:00] dealing with the struggles that he has dealt with every single day of his life, and to see the way that he attacked life, you know, I was inspired by them just as much.

[00:28:09] Kurt Warner: And it became, you know, a big focus of the movie is we want to be able to use all of our different stories because we know that people are gonna watch this in so many different places. Some might be dreamers like me that are chasing after their dream of, you know, being whatever. you know, some may be parents that have, you know, a child that, that, that is struggling with something and they’re wondering what you do.

[00:28:30] Kurt Warner: maybe there’s a single mom or a dad out there that’s, you know, buying food on food stamps and wondering then, you know, what does the future have in store? where do I go from here? but I think there’s just so many aspects in the movie and so many moments in the movie that just resonate with people in different places and encourage them that, you know, even through the struggles, you know, that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel and there’s more to life at this moment.

[00:28:53] Kurt Warner: Doesn’t always have to define you, even though when you’re in that moment, it seems so, like, oh my gosh, [00:29:00] okay, you know, I’m here and this is where I’m at right now, and man, am I’m gonna be here forever. There. There’s no way out. and I think that’s, and you have that. yeah, I think there was numerous times that, you know, that, that popped into my mind.

[00:29:12] Kurt Warner: but you know, what I’ve always believed is, you know, we even talked about it when we were, you know, getting on this morning and you were talking about this is the best day because you said it’s gonna be your best day. And you go in with that particular attitude that so much of, I think our mindset is about what we let dominate our mindset.

[00:29:28] Kurt Warner: You know, what’s gonna be the most prevalent thing that, you know, that our mind tells us on a daily basis. And so, yes, I had those moments of doubts, those moments of wondering, you know, the pity parties. at times going, man, you know, why me, you know, why do I all of this? But I never let those things dominate me.

[00:29:48] Kurt Warner: You know, they would come in and just as quickly I’d tried to kick ’em back out and go, okay, but this isn’t where I’m go. Yes, we’re on food stamps right now and we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do. at [00:30:00] this moment, Brenda’s going to nursing school. I’m trying to, you know, chase after my dream and she’s got two kids and they’re not in school and I gotta take care of them and we’re going on a few hours, all this stuff.

[00:30:10] Kurt Warner: But ultimately I just kept, this is not where we’re gonna end up. This is where we are right now. And so we’ve gotta do what we gotta do right now. And we’ve gotta, you know, that was, you know, leading me to go, you know, take that job in a grocery store. I gotta do something. I gotta make. You know, some money, I gotta help take care of your, our family dynamic, whatever that is.

[00:30:28] Kurt Warner: And so, you know, there, there’s moments that you have to go through in life, but my mindset was always like, this is not where it’s gonna end. This is not how it’s going to finish. This is just a part of the story. And that was kind of what kept me taking one step,after another. And they might not have been big steps, and they might not have been dramatic steps along the way, but it was just keep moving, keep stepping, keep looking for the next opportunity, to work our way from where we’re at right now, because we don’t want this to be where we [00:31:00] end up.

[00:31:00] Kurt Warner: Yeah. Where we’re at right now to, to the next phase, and then the next phase. And, you know, one step after another. We, you know, dug ourselves, you know, out of the hole. And then, you know, worked our way to where we’re at right now.

[00:31:12] Chris Dorris: Is Did you say that this is a part, I wrote this down from the movie. is this yours?

[00:31:17] Chris Dorris: Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do until you get to do what you wanna do.

[00:31:21] Kurt Warner: Yeah. I actually said it a little bit differently in my Hall of Fame speech where I said, you gotta do what you gotta do, while you’re waiting to do what you were born to do. Ooh. So that you changed that. Oh, that’s so good.

[00:31:34] Kurt Warner: That for me was, you know, so much because I always felt, you know, every time I had a football in my hand, I just felt like I was different. Like, this is where I feel most alive. This is where I have the most passion. This is what I believe I was born to do. And, you know, it took me a long time to get to do it, the way I wanted to do it and do it at the level that I wanted to do it as.

[00:31:56] Kurt Warner: Yeah. but I always felt like, you know, even then when there was moments of [00:32:00] doubt, on whether I would get an opportunity or whatever. Just every time I picked up a football, even if I was throwing in the backyard or I was going to work out, you know, working in a grocery store and I’m going to do my workout, and I picked up a football and started throwing.

[00:32:12] Kurt Warner: I’m just like, I just know I, I’m just different when I have a ball in my hands. And so I, you know, as I continue to go through the journey, it was just like, man, I just, I know that this is what I’m supposed to do in life. This is supposed to be a part of what I’m doing in life. And so, you know, that’s kind of where that quote came from, is that, yep.

[00:32:33] Kurt Warner: You know, we had to buy food on food stamps. I had to work in a grocery store. You know, I had to work at night so I could take care of Brenda’s kids and then get my workouts in and still keep chasing my, so I had to do some of these things. I had to take those steps, to make ends meet and to get us from, you know, point A to, to point B.

[00:32:51] Kurt Warner: but I just knew that, you know, as I said before, that wasn’t the end game. That wasn’t what I was born to do. There was way more inside of me than what I was [00:33:00] able to do in that moment. And, you know, but that’s part of life cuz sometimes we don’t get to walk in, you know, our passion or our purpose for a period of time.

[00:33:10] Kurt Warner: but I never lost sight of what that passion and purpose was, and that’s what kept me one step after another, you know, wherever that was. Just looking for that next chance to get a little bit closer, you know, to, to that dream, to that passion, to that purpose in life. So when you were stocking

[00:33:28] Chris Dorris: Shell’s Gro, graveyard shift in a grocery store, how many

[00:33:34] Kurt Warner: years did you do that?

[00:33:35] Kurt Warner: you know, I only did it for about six months. So it was a period of time from when. And then before I, I started playing arena football. Yes. No, I haven’t talked about that. It was just that period of time where, you know, nobody was calling, nobody wanted me. Yeah. And it was like, okay, so I gotta do something in the meantime, in hopes that at some point down the road somebody called and Jim Foster showed up and [00:34:00] Jim Foster showed up.

[00:34:00] Kurt Warner: Yeah.

[00:34:02] Chris Dorris: That guy, Bruce McGill did a great job. No.

[00:34:04] Kurt Warner: Yeah, he’s awesome. He did a great job. And, you know, it was so fun because we, you know, we had to put, we actually put a couple characters, so to put my head coach and the owner of the barn storm was kind of into one character, and so he did a great,

[00:34:16] Chris Dorris: oh, okay.

[00:34:16] Chris Dorris: I was confused by that. Okay. Sorry. Gotcha. Right.

[00:34:19] Kurt Warner: You know, it’s one of the tricks of movies that they can’t introduce so many people along the way that you don’t ever really get to know him. So sometimes they’ll take one character and they’ll put two, three into that one character.

[00:34:30] Chris Dorris: I actually was doing research this morning because I’m like, wait, was he the coach or the owner or, yeah, no.

[00:34:34] Chris Dorris: Right, right, right. So he did not, he invented arena football. Right. So, but he was a chairman. Exactly. So exactly the barn, the Iowa barnstormers. So how did, was it three years you played.

[00:34:44] Kurt Warner: I ended up playing three years in arena football. Yeah. Were you So, it was just one of those things, Uhhuh, where I never wanted to play arena football.

[00:34:50] Kurt Warner: I thought it was better than arena football. Right. but you know, you worked for five 50 an hour in a grocery store and somebody comes calling and says, you play football. And at that time, you know, whatever it was a [00:35:00] thousand dollars a week or whatever it was at the time, $800 a week. whereas like, okay, there’s a lot better than that.

[00:35:06] Kurt Warner: Yeah. And at the end of the day, I’m playing football, you know, I’m doing what I love doing. And you know, at times I had to wrap my mind around, yes, the dream was always the play at the highest level and play in the nfl, but maybe that’s not the dream that ends up happening. Maybe my career is a 10 year career in arena football where I can still take care of my family, I can do what I love doing.

[00:35:28] Kurt Warner: and maybe that’s as high as the dream goes. and you have to kind of wrestle with the idea. Are you okay with that? And you know, for me, I think that was part of it was I just wanna play football. This is what I want to do. This is where I feel alive. And if I can do it in a way that I can take care of my family,then I want to do it.

[00:35:46] Kurt Warner: And that was the first step in, in leading me back to arena football, was I’d rather be doing this than anything else. And so I’m gonna take that step and I’m gonna start doing it while never losing side of wanting to do it at a higher level. you know, so I would [00:36:00] say, you know, the ability to be content, but not satisfied.

[00:36:03] Kurt Warner: And I think that’s such a huge key in life is that if we live our lives, never content and never satisfied, we’re miserable. if we can find ourselves, you know, on a daily basis, content with where we’re at, yet not satisfied that I’m not done, you know, I want to do more, I want to be better. that’s where I think we can really find ourselves loving life.

[00:36:25] Kurt Warner: Because I’m not sitting here complaining every day about where I’m at and what I don’t have. I’m content with what I have. But at the same time, I’m always pushing myself to go, but can I be better? Can I do more? Can I accomplish more in life? is there more to this than where I’m at right now?

[00:36:42] Kurt Warner: And I think that combination really helped me along the way because, you know, for a long time I would’ve never been satisfied. It, you know, I would’ve never been content. It was like, it’s only the NFL or nothing. And it made me miserable because when those things aren’t playing out, and when you don’t have that, [00:37:00] you just live life every day, miserable, going, this stinks.

[00:37:02] Kurt Warner: I’m not getting what I want. Yeah. Like, it’s awful. It’s terrible. Why me? And so, you know, I had to realize at some point, that I had to find that balance in life of learning what being content means. and it doesn’t mean I’m done. It doesn’t mean once I’m content doesn’t mean I stop moving or I stop growing, or I have no desire to have more or to do more.

[00:37:27] Kurt Warner: It simply means that I can be content with where I’m at this point in time because it’s where I have to be. and as long as I’m doing the things within my circumstances, that I feel proud of, or I’m chasing that idea of excellence, I can be content in a lot of different situations. Yet, I don’t know if I’ve ever found a time in life where I’ve been satisfied.

[00:37:49] Kurt Warner: I’m still great. I love that. I think where I’m fully satisfied with where I am and who I am, I’m not there yet, but but I’ve been very content for a large portion of, of the [00:38:00] latest stages.

[00:38:00] Chris Dorris: please don’t get satisfied because the contributions that you’re making in the world are profound, and we’ll get to that stuff.

[00:38:07] Chris Dorris: There was another, I think you just gave me the title for this podcast, by the way. Content. Putting that satisfied. is that yours?

[00:38:13] Kurt Warner: Is that a,I don’t know if it’s mine or not. No, it’s your, it’s yours. I’ve heard it there somewhere. Not, yeah.

[00:38:20] Chris Dorris: I love it. Okay. I love that and I’m totally stealing it, but I’ll also credit you for it.

[00:38:24] Chris Dorris: No, there was another scene Where Jim Foster character and tell me if this is accurate, if this is drama, you know, you’ve been playing, you’re Okay in the arena league for the barnstormers. And he pulls out, he pays you a Honda, you score a touchdown and he peels a Honda. And you’re like, what’s that for?

[00:38:43] Chris Dorris: Right. Yeah. is that story a,

[00:38:45] Kurt Warner: can you tell that? it’s not, that’s a little dramatized that, you know, it like didn’t happen on the field. Like I, I knew, you know, it was part of the contract that you get paid so much. Per week. So when I first started, you got paid so much per week, [00:39:00] you got paid a little bit more if you won the game.

[00:39:02] Kurt Warner: And then as you, as I progressed, I don’t even know if this was in my first year, playing or not, but as you progress and as I would work out, my contracts throughout my career, you would get performance bonuses. And so it wasn’t like the NFL where you’re just getting paid 50 million a year.

[00:39:19] Kurt Warner: You know, you had all these different incentives in there. And one of ’em was, yeah, I would get paid a hundred dollars per touchdown pass. And so, you know, that was always, you know, that was always there. Anytime you left the game and you go, man, I took five touchdown passes. All right, that’s 500 bucks that I just made, you know, that you don’t necessarily really expect.

[00:39:37] Kurt Warner: But yes. the hundred dollars per touchdown pass is a legit thing. It wasn’t pulled out and handed to me, you know, on the football field at any point in time. Sure.

[00:39:46] Chris Dorris: but did it make. See, this is what the movie implied. And maybe there’s truth to this, maybe not exactly the way it occurred in the movie, but it was like, it’s like you got you like, oh, every time.

[00:39:58] Chris Dorris: Okay. [00:40:00]

[00:40:01] Kurt Warner: No,

[00:40:01] Chris Dorris: once it won that long after that, that the Rams came and said, yo. Yeah.

[00:40:05] Kurt Warner: I mean once you, yeah. that’s obviously a, that’s a big deal when you’ve been working for five 15 an hour And you know, you’re playing football and then you realize, that, you know, that kind of success on the football field.

[00:40:18] Kurt Warner: that’s a difference maker. if, you know any one week, if you’re going from any, I’m making $800 this week and you throw five touchdown passes or seven touchdown, and he’s like, man, I just doubled my salary in one week. Right. By throwing touchdown passes. Right. And so there’s a tremendous motivator Yeah.

[00:40:33] Kurt Warner: in that, although, you know, again, you don’t play the game going, I gotta force touchdown passes so I can make extra money. but it is definitely a motivator when. When you’re, you know, most of your contract is incentive based, right? Most contracts we have now are not incentive based. You’re gonna get most of your money over here.

[00:40:51] Kurt Warner: And then you can make, you know, we’ll give you a little incentive if you do such and such when you got a contract that is, you know, almost solely incentive based,[00:41:00] that changes how you go about things. and it pushes you in a different way knowing, Hey, if I’m not successful, I don’t get paid.

[00:41:08] Kurt Warner: And, you know, there’s just, there’s something to that. and so there were so many things that I learned in arena football, you know, that, that helped me to grow and, you know, to better understand life. and a lot of great lessons that I learned. you know, falling back in love with the game of football was one of the great things that arena football, because it wasn’t about the money and most guys were never gonna make it to the nfl.

[00:41:30] Kurt Warner: And so you’re just surrounded by a bunch of people that love doing what they’re doing. And there’s something special about being a part of a group, a team, an organization where everybody comes to work and they just love what they’re doing. They’re not doing it for all these other reasons other than me.

[00:41:45] Kurt Warner: This is what I want to do. I wanna show up and I wanna play ball today. And so there were so many great lessons that I learned playing arena football that would, you know, that would, you know, become things that, that I would appreciate or help me to appreciate the [00:42:00] rest of the journey, even more. Did you really

[00:42:03] Chris Dorris: sit in a meeting and say that NFL players were slow after you got to the Rams?

[00:42:09] Kurt Warner: not necessarily that NFL players were slow. But that the game was slower

[00:42:15] Chris Dorris: because that was funny. That was quite,

[00:42:16] Kurt Warner: I was coming from arena football with a 50 yard field. Yeah. And you know that the defensive ends are, you know, we only played with three offensive line, and the defensive ends are right next to you, and the windows closed and everything’s fast.

[00:42:30] Kurt Warner: And so the game was faster. The game, you know, everything was indoor, was on turf, so the game was faster. And so that was one of the transitions for me as I got back to the big game or the big field, was, you know, there was oftentimes where I was just ready too soon. You know, it’s like you gotta slow down.

[00:42:48] Kurt Warner: Like the game is not as fast. You know, the guys are running farther or deeper, the ball’s gotta travel farther. And so, so yeah. There was times that, you know, I would get frustrated, like, oh my [00:43:00] gosh, they need to go faster. Like we, you know, and ultimately you just, that was pretty fun. The game’s just different, you know?

[00:43:06] Kurt Warner: Yeah. The spacing’s different and it wasn’t obviously that anybody was slow, but the game. Was much slower than I played in arena football. And so yes, it led to some frustration and it led to me, you know, being ahead a little bit. But, you know, ultimately, again, those were lessons that I learned in arena football that would pay huge dividends for me to be able to play the game faster and process information and be actor with the football.

[00:43:29] Kurt Warner: Yeah. As long, you know, once I was able to figure out, okay, how do I curtail all those, you know, different skills that I use in arena football? Still use them, but how do I curtail that to the big game now, man, now I felt like, man, we’re unstoppable. this game.

[00:43:46] Chris Dorris: Wow. That’s so great. See, there you go.

[00:43:48] Chris Dorris: this is the theme, right? It’s like, it’s not where you wanted to be, but you’re

[00:43:51] Kurt Warner: using it. Oh, exactly. It’s gonna be impossible to stop us. Like the field’s twice as big. Like, oh my [00:44:00] gosh. You know, and I can see this stuff really fast. And I think it was part of the reason why, you know, as we got into the, you know, the greatest show on Turf with Yeah.

[00:44:07] Kurt Warner: with St. Louis is we were playing on turf. We were really fast. And so we played the game at another speed and I could play the game at that speed because I was so used to playing it at that speed. And so, you know, it is amazing when you know, you start to see and when your life plays out and you start to understand, man, I didn’t wanna be here and I didn’t wanna be doing that, but ultimately that is what helped me to become, you know, really good at this.

[00:44:35] Kurt Warner: And, you know, it’s hard to really appreciate it in the moment. but there’s no doubt that I appreciate. You know, that training ground now and those things that it taught me, because I do believe, you know, that I became a different kind of player because of my time in arena football. And had I not done that, I look back to and I go, I don’t know.

[00:44:55] Kurt Warner: I don’t know if I would’ve been the same guy. I don’t know if I would’ve been good if you had

[00:44:58] Chris Dorris: not have that time. [00:45:00] Eh, but not just have that time, but the way you were in that time. Right? Like if you got dark in your head Yeah. And you weren’t content. If you were discontent and dissatisfied, then you wouldn’t have shown up in a way that would get the Ram’s attention.

[00:45:17] Chris Dorris: Right.

[00:45:19] Kurt Warner: No, I yeah’s everything. There’s no doubt. the ability to focus through. But then

[00:45:24] Chris Dorris: what’s really fascinating though, about your story is that it was like so much time and you stayed in shape while you’re working at a grocery store and all this shit, and then you’re playing arena and there’s a little bit of weirdness about that.

[00:45:35] Chris Dorris: But you’re staying that as I’m getting paid, I can take care of my family, I’m staying with it. And you’re staying passionate and then you get the break. Yeah. You gotta, a couple, right? And it’s some serendipity. Right. And, and you’re ready.

[00:45:49] Kurt Warner: And then it’s one year. Yeah.

[00:45:51] Chris Dorris: Super Bowl mvp. Like, so it is like steady.

[00:45:55] Kurt Warner: Yeah. Right. and again, I look back to, you know, so many [00:46:00] different things and you know, if somebody would’ve told you whatever field, whatever, when you were seven or eight years old, okay, by the time you’re 28, You’ll have won the MVP in your sport and you’ll have won the championship in your sport, would you take it?

[00:46:17] Kurt Warner: And all of us would be like, sign me up tomorrow. I’m in, of course now here I go on this crazy journey. And I don’t play my first game until I’m 28. But like you said, I’m catapulted to the place that, you know, very few get to by the time they’re 28. But that, you know, but that I dreamed about, you know, by the time I was 28.

[00:46:40] Kurt Warner: And so I was catapulted there in one year. And so, you know, the other part of learning through all of this was like, that’s what it was all about, was that I was going through all of this training because don’t we talk about that all the time? Like, it’s about being ready for your moment when your moment comes.

[00:46:58] Kurt Warner: And so many of us [00:47:00] think, I’m ready. I’m ready now. Like, gimme the opportunity. I’m ready. I know I’m ready. I know I can hit it. And you know, who knows? are we not ready? But what I know is that when I got the opportunity with the Rams, I was ready. I was ready. I had played a lot

[00:47:15] Chris Dorris: of football.

[00:47:15] Chris Dorris: Your offensive coordinator didn’t seem like, was that true Ma Mar, was it Mars?

[00:47:21] Kurt Warner: Was he that mean to you? Oh yeah. It was,it was pretty rough. And you know, here’s the thing, and yeah, I thought it came across pretty well in the movie, but you know, the idea was simply nobody knows if Kurt can be any good.

[00:47:34] Kurt Warner: And we’re not ever really going to know if Kurt can be any good until he shows us he can be good. Because he’s not going to play until he’s forced to play. Right? so we’re not gonna get a bunch of games to just get him in there and see if he’s any good and then decide. So Mike Marx’s approach was, okay, we’re never gonna have game type experience to know.

[00:47:57] Kurt Warner: But here’s what I’m going to do. I am [00:48:00] going to push this kid every single day. I am going to ride him. I’m going to ride him when things aren’t even his fault. I’m gonna tell him, he’s terrible. I’m gonna yell at him for every mistake. You know, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna, I’m gonna coach, you know, our starting quarterback through, through Kurt in the meeting.

[00:48:16] Kurt Warner: So I’m gonna do all of this. So I’m just gonna see if I can break him, basically. I’m gonna see. Cause I don’t know if he’s any good and he’s probably not any good, you know, and again, not that’s Mike’s, you know, fault. I think there was a lot of people that thought he’s probably not any good.

[00:48:30] Kurt Warner: Like, if he was good, he would’ve been here a long time ago. He wouldn’t been playing arena football, he wouldn’t have been working on, and I think that was the mindset of everybody. So I think his perspective was, all right, we’re gonna find out, you know, we’re gonna find out that, you know, if this stuff breaks him, then we know he doesn’t have a chance to be successful on the field.

[00:48:48] Kurt Warner: So I’m gonna try to break him. I’m gonna try to push him to the limits. And if it doesn’t, Then we’ll see that maybe there’s something there, and if it does, then obviously it was one of those [00:49:00] things where he wasn’t ready or capable of playing at this level, and it’s probably why he wasn’t there at this point.

[00:49:05] Kurt Warner: So, so yes, it was really tough. You know, I remember we did an interview, me and you know, Marshall and Isaac and my group like four or five weeks into the season. And we were obviously playing great and I was playing really well. And, I remember the interview asking, you know, everybody but asking him, did you guys know, you know, like everybody wants to, we knew that Kurt was gonna be great or we knew, so did you guys know that Kurt was gonna be this good?

[00:49:30] Kurt Warner: And I remember him looking at each other and then Mark just started laughing. He goes, you know, actually we thought Kurt was awful because every day in practice, all he did was get yelled at. Every time we went into the meeting, he couldn’t do anything, right. So when Trey got hurt, we thought, oh my gosh, just like everyone has season’s over, this guy’s terrible.

[00:49:48] Kurt Warner: There’s no way we’re gonna win with this guy. So, you know, so all of that kind of played into, to, you know, what Marx was doing, and it really was kind of like in the movie, is that once Trent went down and got [00:50:00] injured and I became the starter, he called me into his office and basically said, hey, all that stuff’s over.

[00:50:05] Kurt Warner: Like I was simply doing that to push you. That’s incredible. As much pressure on you as I possibly could to just see what you were made of. Because that was the only thing we were gonna get. until you got an opportunity to play. Now it’s over, now it’s your job, now it’s time to roll and let’s go play.

[00:50:22] Kurt Warner: And so, you know, it was so hard going through it because you didn’t know, man, does this guy not like me? Does, am I really not very good? does he really think I’m this bad? And then ultimately you find out it was just this coaching style to try to get me as ready as possible in case exactly what happened.

[00:50:38] Chris Dorris: That was drill sergeant level, you know? What’s that? That was drill sergeant level coaching

[00:50:44] Kurt Warner: right there. E exactly. And you know, and I saw Mike do that with other guys as we went on, and some guys didn’t handle it as well. You know, some guys, it took him in the opposite direction. And so a lot of it is knowing.

[00:50:58] Kurt Warner: Who you’re leading, who you’re [00:51:00] coaching, what buttons you can push. But for me, it just pushed me harder. It just drove me more, to want to show people. and I also thought like, nothing’s going to, you know, that’s not gonna take me out. Like, I don’t care what you say. I’ve been through stuff, you know, I’ve been through enough stuff.

[00:51:16] Kurt Warner: I’ve had bad games. I’ve, you know, been benched before. You know, that stuff, you know, and I was also very self-confident. I think that was another part of it, was I was able to sometimes decipher through, okay, he’s yelling at me, but I know that fumble Snap wasn’t my fault, or he’s yelling at me, but I know the receiver ran the wrong route.

[00:51:36] Kurt Warner: And even though I’m getting yelled at, you know, some people that would beat him up, and that would, and I, you know, I was really realistic to go, okay, he can yell at me. I know what happened. You know, I threw that exactly where I wanted to throw it, and I know it got intercepted, but I understood the factors that were behind it.

[00:51:50] Kurt Warner: And so being able to hold onto your confidence, Through those moments. and, you know, and through that kind of coaching, again, was something that I think I’ve [00:52:00] learned going through the road that I went through of always holding onto my confidence. Like, I love that nobody could ever take it away from me.

[00:52:06] Kurt Warner: And so, you know, I share this story all the time. Is that,first and foremost, let’s go back to, so, you know, I was cut by the Green Bay Packers with my first opportunity, right? And so, you know, I tell people all the time when I got cut with the Packers, Brett Far was just taking over the Packers at that time.

[00:52:23] Kurt Warner: Okay. And then I retired, so that was 1994. I retired in 2009. And from 1994 to 2009, Brett Fav did not miss a single start. In the Nashville Football League. So from the time I was cut by Green Bay until the day I retire. Oh, that’s great. Brett far didn’t miss a single start. Thank God so’s amazing how I made the Green Bay Packers.

[00:52:48] Kurt Warner: I simply would’ve up for Brett Far, who knows how much I, you know,

[00:52:52] Chris Dorris: do you know John Dorn boss? Yeah, I know John. Yeah. You know his story right? When he got traded? Traded Yep. To the Saints. [00:53:00] Yep. Thank God. Exactly.

[00:53:02] Kurt Warner: Aren’t about to explode. he just did an event for us. you know, it’s, oh duh

[00:53:07] Chris Dorris: Jesus.

[00:53:07] Chris Dorris: I can’t, of course I know that Tim, he was there. He’s just sent me a picture of it. You know, Tim. Yeah.

[00:53:12] Kurt Warner: Okay. but yeah, exactly. So, you know, I’m thinking to myself, I would’ve been a backup and who knows if I ever would’ve gotten an opportunity. So yes, I didn’t wanna get cut and I didn’t wanna work in the grocery store.

[00:53:22] Kurt Warner: I didn’t wanna play arena football yet. I probably played more football in those four years. Then of course, any backup quarterback played. Right? And, you know, maybe more than most starters played in that four years. And so, you know, it, it started there getting cut and then getting back to the nfl. And, you know, people ask me, you know, all the time, how did you hold onto your competence and how did you believe when you got to the nfl That you have this kinda success? Because all they see is, you know, getting cut in grocery store and reading football. And we’re all familiar with the story of David Goliath and everybody’s heard that story. [00:54:00] But when you read the story and the count in the Bible,the part that jumps out to me the most is when King Saw was talking to David and, you know, he looks at David and he goes, looks at this little shepherd boy that just came off the fields to, to bring lunch to his brothers who were, you know, actually in the Army.

[00:54:16] Kurt Warner: and he is looking at this. He goes, okay, you know, you just came away from your flock and you just showed up. What, why do you think. Why do you think you can take down this giant, like, we’ve got all these guys that are trained to do this and they’re scared to death, yet you just come walking over, you know, you just, you leave your flock in the field and walk over here and you go, I’ll take him down.

[00:54:35] Kurt Warner: What makes you think that you can do this? And David points back to the fact that he was a shepherd boy. And he had been a shepherd for a long time. And he would say, you know, when I was in the field with my flock and a bear would come, I would always defend my flock from that bear. And then when a wolf came, every time I defended my flock from that wolf[00:55:00] and he went on, when a lion came, I defended my flock from that lion, he said.

[00:55:04] Kurt Warner: So every time I’ve faced a giant, I’ve been successful. And the way I looked at my life was every time I was between the lions. I was successful. Like, I sat for the, on the bench for four years in college. Yes. But I played one year in college and I was the best player in our conference that year. Yes, I played arena football, but three years of arena football was the best quarterback in the league.

[00:55:26] Kurt Warner: And I went to the championship twice. I played in Europe for one year. Statistically I was the best quarter, you know, so, so every time I had faced a giant, yes, it wasn’t Goliath, but every time I had faced a giant, I was successful. And so I knew, what I was capable of. I knew the skills that I had. I knew that I was put a ball in my hands, I was gonna be successful.

[00:55:47] Kurt Warner: And so, yes, this is a bigger giant. This is higher stakes, you know, more people are watching. But the bottom line was, I have been prepared. God was training me for this. God was preparing me for [00:56:00] this in all these different means, so that when I got here, I would be confident that I could be successful in this moment, no matter how big the giant was.

[00:56:09] Kurt Warner: And so, again, leading back to all of this to go, there was a preparation period that I needed to go through. There were things that I needed to learn. There were areas in which I needed to grow. So when my opportunity came, I was ready for it. And had I not had that training ground, cause I, I really have no idea.

[00:56:29] Kurt Warner: I can’t sit here and definitively say without that I would’ve been the same guy. I would’ve been the same player, I would’ve had the same success. I don’t believe that to be true. I needed to grow. I needed, you know, to be trained in different areas. And without that I wouldn’t be where I’m at today. I wouldn’t be the person that I am today.

[00:56:50] Kurt Warner: And so, I’m so grateful for the journey now that I didn’t want to have any part of then. but I realize that and that’s good. That’s great. And we have to accept the [00:57:00] idea that we’re not a finished product yet. As much as we wanna believe that we are. We always have things that we can learn and areas in which we can grow.

[00:57:09] Kurt Warner: And for me, it was about taking advantage of every opportunity I got so that it could shape me so that when the next opportunity came, I was ready for it. And I truly felt like I was walking into something and I was going to succeed. I was going to succeed because I always succeeded. And even though nobody else saw it, and even though it was on a smaller scale, I always succeeded.

[00:57:30] Kurt Warner: And that was the confidence that I carried with me when I stepped onto the N F L field the first time.

[00:57:35] Chris Dorris: I hope that everyone that’s listening and or watching this is paying very close attention to the expert methodology of selective attention that you’re using right now. Right? You’re creating your truth.

[00:57:52] Chris Dorris: You could, you’ve had a jillion failures, man. Jillian. Jillian Failures. You’re not [00:58:00] focusing on those.

[00:58:01] Kurt Warner: You’re people would look at ass. I don’t know if I consider ’em all failures,

[00:58:06] Chris Dorris: but, you’ve had, we’ve all have, we all have failure. Failure.

[00:58:08] Kurt Warner: no. Right. but I’m saying a lot of things that happen in life is that we define it as failures.

[00:58:14] Kurt Warner: And like you’re saying, like sitting on the bench for four years in college, most people would say that’s a failure. Right. And I didn’t look at it like that. I looked at it like, I got to play one year, and that one year I played great. And so that wasn’t a failure, that was just a lack of opportunity.

[00:58:35] Kurt Warner: When you talk about selective attention, I think it is, like, how do I look at that? Yeah. I don’t look at failure on the bench necessarily as like, I failed. Right. You know, maybe I was missing something. Maybe I needed to learn something. But I think it’s very important to understand what failure is. And again, I’m not saying Chris, that I haven’t failed.

[00:58:54] Kurt Warner: I, I have definitely failed, and I’ve realized what that failure was, and then I’ve learned and grown from it. But then there’s other [00:59:00] times where I’m like, that’s not failure and I’m, you, I’m not looking at that and I’m not knocking myself down or losing confidence because what somebody else might see as failure to me wasn’t always a failure.

[00:59:11] Kurt Warner: That’s all I was saying. and I

[00:59:12] Chris Dorris: couldn’t love that more. Right. Like we were talking earlier about response ability, your ability to respond in ways that have you be able to create excellence is supreme. And I’m really hoping that everyone that watches and listens to that this takes that away is that I like, you know, save yourself.

[00:59:33] Chris Dorris: One of the takeaways from Kurt at interview with CD is I’m really going up level the hell out of the way that I choose to interpret what goes down. Yep. Right. And I’m gonna do it in an inspired way that keeps me ready. Yep. Right. And I, so I keep my confidence and when my chance comes, I’m damn ready.

[00:59:53] Chris Dorris: Yeah. you know, I wanna talk, for a couple more minutes if you have a couple more minutes about what’s, how you’re choosing to use your [01:00:00] life now. One of the, I’m a big,I was heavily influenced by the late great Dr. Wayne Dyer and. He crafted a question that is possibly, it is one of the most beautifully crafted questions I’ve ever heard, and one of the most important questions I think anybody could pause and reflect upon and respond to, and it’s this, how do you most profoundly want to use the rest of your life?

[01:00:30] Chris Dorris: it’s a great question. That’s a good question. Right. How do you both profoundly want to use the rest of your life? And I wanna take a minute here, or several, whatever you want to examine how you’re choosing to use Yeah. Your life post game, right? you’re making a huge difference, man.

[01:00:48] Chris Dorris: Unbe, unbelievable levels of contribution back to

[01:00:53] Kurt Warner: humanity. let me, lemme share a story cause I love the question. And, so about six months ago I was [01:01:00] speaking and some of my friends had come and joined us. At the event. So the night before I was speaking, we were sitting around talking and I love chocolate, so we were eating some Dove chocolates.

[01:01:12] Kurt Warner: And so if anybody out there likes chocolate or likes Dove chocolates, you’ll know that. when you open up one of the Dove chocolates inside the wrappers, the tin foil, they have kind of motivational quotes or it’s kinda like a, you know, chocolate fortune cookie. So way better than a fortune cookie.

[01:01:27] Kurt Warner: Cause you get chocolate. Nice. it’s like a chocolate fortune cookie. And so we were joking around that night as we were reading some of ’em, and my friends were like, okay, challenge you and see how many of these you can get into your speech tomorrow night. So, so we had a little bit of fun with it. But I say all that because there was one on the inside of a dub chocolate bar that inspired me and that I’ve used in every speech that I’ve given.

[01:01:51] Kurt Warner: Since that day. Wow. And yes, so that fortune on the back of that dub chocolate wrapper was, I wanna [01:02:00] live in such a way that I make my past self jealous. I wanna live in such a way that I make my past self jealous. And the reason it’s so profound, and it leads right into to your question, is that my first 50 years have been pretty good.

[01:02:18] Kurt Warner: Like, you know, I’ve accomplished a lot. you know, I’ve been considered one of the best at my craft to ever do it. where you talked about it earlier, they made a movie about my life. like the first 50 years have been pretty darn good. And I think so often it’s like, okay, you know, I check the boxes.

[01:02:36] Kurt Warner: I can just kind of, you know, just kind of write off into the sunset. And, you know, I’ll be good, you know, I did well. but you know, that inspires me because that is what I want to do for the rest of my life, is I want to make people forget about the first 50 years I want to do things. I want to impact people, I want to do something better, [01:03:00] greater, however you look at that than what I did in the first 50.

[01:03:04] Kurt Warner: and that’s really my mindset and I don’t really know, like I don’t have a clear vision on what exactly that is. and, you know, got my hands on all kinds of different things and all of ’em have the idea of, okay, I want to use this to hold onto a platform to impact people, to help them to be able to be better, whatever.

[01:03:24] Kurt Warner: But I don’t know what that ultimate picture is going to look like, but I know that’s my mindset moving forward, that it’s been really good up to this point. But that’s not the best of it. The best is yet to come and, you know, so, so that to me is my mindset. Moving forward. and so, you know, the same mindset we talked about at the beginning of the show is the same mindset that I have now.

[01:03:48] Kurt Warner: And so now it’s about dabbling in different things. And so, you know, we have two foundations. So I still have my Player foundation where we do a number of different programs [01:04:00] every year. that’s been really impactful for my family, the impact of me that’s here, thank everybody. Dot org. warner.org.

[01:04:08] Kurt Warner: and so, you know, we do different things and we talked about my wife being on food stamps, when, you know, we were in her first beginning stages of our relationship and she was a single mom. And I remember we would bounce around from one apartment to another, you know, trying to make ends meet and whatever.

[01:04:24] Kurt Warner: and I remember, you know, the first night that we got in a home when we bought our first home, And we had no furniture to put in the home, but it was our home and we slept. you know, me and my wife and our two oldest kids slept in the living room on blankets. but it didn’t matter cuz it was like we, we’ve got a home.

[01:04:42] Kurt Warner: And what that meant to us as a family, what it meant to us as parents to give our kids a home. And so now, you know, we’ve adopted a program called Homes for the Holidays where we work with Habitat and we, help give home ownership to single parents, that are, you know, fighting the same battle that we fought [01:05:00] with our son having a traumatic brain injury.

[01:05:02] Kurt Warner: we understand the struggles that is, we understand the moments in the hospital rooms and the wondering what tomorrow will bring and if he’ll live and all of those things. So in every year, you know, it’ll be our 23rd year that we’ll take, make-A-Wish kids to Disney with us, make-A-Wish families to Disney with us, for a week.

[01:05:19] Kurt Warner: And yes, it’s about riding rides and having a good time, but it’s about building relationships. And letting people, you know, see our story and hear our story and let ’em know that, and we love ’em and we’re thinking about ’em and we wanna be in relationship with them. And so, you know, so we do a number of different programs like that, that are, I think are great programs and they’re so much fun.

[01:05:38] Kurt Warner: We, we have reunions every couple of years with those families, so we have hundreds of people that come back and just, you know, knowing the way that, that their families have touched ours and our family has touched theirs is really impactful. And so we do that. We’ve got our other foundation that I see you have up on your board, called Treasure House, which again, inspired by our son Zach, who, you know, will always deal with, you know, certain [01:06:00] disabilities, but it’s also very independent.

[01:06:02] Kurt Warner: that we created a home for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities to be able to live a full life. and so they have jobs, they have communities, they have parties, they have interaction, they have peer groups. It’s. It’s the life that we all deserve and the life that many of us have that, that, you know, too often those with disabilities are limited with because there’s not places that allow them and dive into what their purpose in life is and allow them to chase accurate.

[01:06:31] Kurt Warner: And so, we’ve only got one right now. It’s an Arizona, it’s completely full, and we’ve got a waiting list there. But that becomes another passion, is that, you know, through, you know, a terrible tragedy, my son being dropped, and suffering that traumatic brain injury. we’ve been inspired to, to impact that.

[01:06:48] Kurt Warner: you know, that group within our communities, that I think those with disabilities are a forgotten part of a lot of communities. you know, that they’re not catered to, they’re not given the opportunities that many of us are [01:07:00] given. And so that’s become another passion, is that we want to build treasure houses all across the world.

[01:07:04] Kurt Warner: we want to give families like ours the ability to dream differently. For their children with disabilities to dream the same way they dream for all of their other children. and so that’s another passion of ours is that we want to do that. you know, I’ve started my own teaching and, and coaching website, from a football Oh yeah, I saw that.

[01:07:22] Kurt Warner: yeah. Called QB Confidential. And so, again, another means of going, okay, this is my platform and I understand what the game of football gave me and the opportunities it gave me, not just to play the game and chase my dream, but to have this platform to do all of these other things that I’m doing. So I’ve created that as a means of giving back to coaches and players, that want to be great at this sport and being able to learn it in hopes that maybe, you know, some of them will learn some things on that platform that they can take and use to impact the lives of other people.

[01:07:54] Kurt Warner: And so all of the different kind of ventures that I have, are all based on Okay. [01:08:00] What do I have, what have I been given that I can share and give to other people that can impact their lives or that they can use to impact the lives of other people? and so that’s really where this has started. You know, what’s the next stage?

[01:08:16] Kurt Warner: What does it look like? you know, for the rest of my life? it’s doing all these kinds of different things that I know are all centered around impacting the lives of other people. Because even if I don’t become a Hall of Famer in these next 30 years, I could impact more people than I did in the first 50.

[01:08:34] Kurt Warner: And that’s what I’m trying to do in all these different ways. I’m trying to impact other people. I’m trying to encourage other people, inspire other people to want to impact the world around me. you know, my Hall of Fame speech, you know, I wrote it myself, and it was very important to me. and the theme of it was just, that life is about moments.

[01:08:54] Kurt Warner: And it’s about taking advantage of the moments that we get. You know, I talked about, you know, and I’m not getting in the [01:09:00] Hall of Fame because I played 20 years like Brett Bar and I’m not top five in every category. Why I was getting in the Hall of Fame is because I got less moments than everybody else, but I took advantage of the moments that I got.

[01:09:12] Kurt Warner: And that to me, is so much to me what life is all about. Yeah. It’s about taking advantage of the moments that we did. And my Hall of Fame speech was basically breaking down different, sharing different stories of people who took advantage of a moment. And that moment happened to be an interaction with me.

[01:09:33] Kurt Warner: So they were taking advantage of a moment in their life, but that moment was also a moment in my life, and they took advantage of that moment. And by taking advantage of that, They helped me to grow or get an opportunity or be able to do what I’m doing. So I’m up here standing on this Hall of Fame podium going, the only reason I’m here is because you took advantage of your moment to impact my life.

[01:09:58] Kurt Warner: And you took [01:10:00] advantage of your and without you guys taking advantage of your moments, I’m not where I’m at. And so that’s how I try to approach life now is I wanna take advantage of every moment in hopes that I can be somebody’s part of somebody’s story when they become a hall of fame, when they change the world, that I can be a part of that story because I believe ultimately, you know, part of all those people’s legacy is me being on a hall of fame stage or you know, in a hall of fame on a hall of fame stage.

[01:10:27] Kurt Warner: Cause I’m part of their legacy, even though I might be the one with the gold bus or the gold jacket and the one on the stage. I’m their legacy as well. And that’s how I look at life is that I don’t know if I’m ever gonna stand on a podium and hold a Super Bowl company again, but I’m hoping somebody that I impact will stand up on their Super Bowl podium, whatever that looks like.

[01:10:50] Kurt Warner: Maybe it’s a child with disabilities, you know, they find themselves right? We have individuals that have never had a, you know, a relationship before [01:11:00] that are now in relationships, within Treasure House. And so they’re talking about getting married and they’re talking about having a life together, which is something they never dreamed about before.

[01:11:08] Kurt Warner: Treasure House. And so those are the kind of things that, again, it doesn’t have to be something, you know, that I’m gonna put on my shelf when it’s all said and done, but I look at all of those things as part of our legacy. And if that’s the kind of legacy we can lead is people believing differently about life and believing in the possibilities of life and accomplishing and dreaming differently because of things that, that I’ve done or things that we’ve done moving forward.

[01:11:35] Kurt Warner: That’s what I want. that’s what I want the answer to that question to be. That’s what I wanna spend the rest of my life doing, is being a part of other people’s story,and being able to inspire them to become excellent at whatever they want to do. First

[01:11:49] Chris Dorris: things first, always. So first, seek you the kingdom of God and all else will be added onto you.

[01:11:55] Chris Dorris: I saw that on your, homepage. Yep. That’s, 33. I love

[01:11:59] Kurt Warner: that. [01:12:00] Yep. It’s, it all comes from that, you know, when I was on the Super Bowl podium and, Mike Toco, a friend of mine now that, that I’ve called games with now, he was doing the interview and he is like, first things first Kirk, tell me about the touchdown pass.

[01:12:11] Kurt Warner: you know, they have you guys win the Super Bowl, and it was like, For me, it was like, oh, first thing’s first. I just want to, I just wanna thank God, I just wanna thank Jesus for, for his role in my life. And again, so many people get that confused, like, oh, what the other team didn’t pray, or, you know, God made your passes to go straighter.

[01:12:28] Kurt Warner: And it’s like, no,that to me is not what faith is all about. It’s not like I got this God’s up here. It’s a gene that’s making all my passes go for touchdowns. But it’s just the journey that I’ve been on, you know, kind of like the idea of David, thank you for bringing me on this journey and showing me along the way and training me and preparing me for this moment, preparing me for my big moment that would come, that preparing me for my Goliath.

[01:12:52] Kurt Warner: So, so I was ready and I was confident to step into that and be the person that, that you created me to be. And [01:13:00] so that’s where first things first, came from. And that’s where the foundation kind of, you know, birthed out of that moment. And, and that’s become obviously a life first for me. So

[01:13:09] Chris Dorris: as we wrap up, a quick shout out to our mutual buddy, Adam Archuleta.

[01:13:13] Chris Dorris: Appreciate you brother, for facilitating this conversation with this amazing man, Kurt Weiner. And, here’s a quiz for you, ma’am. I’m from Philadelphia. Okay. I’m a diehard Philly. Everything. There are Philly, as you know,

[01:13:29] Kurt Warner: tough crowd. Yes,

[01:13:32] Chris Dorris: there are. I think three former coaches, Eagles coaches that are still beloved.

[01:13:44] Chris Dorris: In Philly. Yeah. Can you name them from most recent to most distant?

[01:13:57] Kurt Warner: I know he was only there a few years. But he [01:14:00] obviously won of a Super Bowl, so I guess I’ll say Doug Peterson. Ding, ding. Yep. Yeah, I wasn’t sure how much he was loved being there a short period of time, but bringing the Super Bowl statue o obviously the next one is gonna be my buddy Kansas City and Andy Reed.

[01:14:16] Kurt Warner: You got it. Ding. Andy was actually, of course, part of the staff with the Green Bay Packers, when I was here in 94. and obviously we would become pretty good friends, after that. And then of course, of course my guy, I remember when we, you know, we were in 99 when we were the number one seed with the Rams.

[01:14:33] Kurt Warner: He was coaching us. Dick was coaching us. We went back to Philly for the last game of the year, and so we were already locked into the number one seed. and so we, we rode into Philly, we’re heading to the game and I remember looking up and there’s huge billboards. In Philadelphia. that’s what

[01:14:48] Chris Dorris: I was gonna say.

[01:14:49] Chris Dorris: It’s still

[01:14:49] Kurt Warner: there. Still there. But billboard’s going, congrats coach. Good luck. And I’m like, what is going on here? Like going the opposing stadium right now. And all I’ve heard is [01:15:00] don’t let your wife come to Philly. Like that’s one place you can’t let her come to the stadium. All I’ve heard is about how these fans and how rad they are and they’re throwing snowballs at Santa Claus and like, okay, what do we get into here in this game in Philly?

[01:15:13] Kurt Warner: And there’s this huge billboard wishing us well going into the playoffs and congratulating coach. And so, I realized that moment, I mean I had realized before that, that Dick Veril is this special individual. Yeah. But I realized in that moment, just another depth of how special he is and this idea of legacy and.

[01:15:34] Kurt Warner: Here’s a guy that leaves an impact on each and every person that he comes in contact with. Obviously, you know, even to this day, what man, that was, what? 81? so we’re talking 40 some years later. He’s still beloved in the city Yeah. Of the individual and the impact that he had. And so, that was a pretty, pretty cool moment to, to recognize how great that individual was.

[01:15:59] Kurt Warner: And Vince [01:16:00] Papa. Vince Papa and yeah. That coach, that’s the head coach of two movies about invincible. Yeah. opportunity.

[01:16:10] Chris Dorris: That’s great. So, listen, man,I just, I wanna say thank you to you. and I also wanna say thank you. I haven’t met Brenda, but I wanna say, I want, please pass that on. I will, thank you for the way you choose to live.

[01:16:24] Chris Dorris: Thank you for the way that you choose to use this miraculous life of ours. Thank you both for the massive impact that you’re making, and thank you, brother for having this past hour and 10 minutes be absolutely phenomenal. Thank you for bringing the gift of you and your story and the way you choose to view life and the way you choose to prioritize loving people.

[01:16:46] Chris Dorris: thank you for bringing that gift that I get to now give to my tough

[01:16:50] Kurt Warner: talks tribe. thanks for having me. I just, you know, it’s awesome to be able to have opportunities, to be around people that are like-minded and that are like-minded in [01:17:00] regards to being able to share whatever we can to help other people be great or excel in whatever they’re doing.

[01:17:06] Kurt Warner: That to me is again, what we talked about for an hour, but what I want my legacy to be, obviously you’re doing this because you want that to be your legacy as well as. It’s not about how great I can be, but what can I do to help everybody that I come in contact with to be great in their own right? And whatever that means.

[01:17:24] Kurt Warner: So, I appreciate the opportunity to share my story, to get to know you a little bit, and, and I hope it’s something that we’ve said or talked about here, impacts everybody that watches it.

[01:17:33] Chris Dorris: Amen. So, treasure house.org, kurt warner.org. And if you wanna follow card on social, it’s Kurt 13 Warner. Appreciate

[01:17:42] Kurt Warner: you, man.

[01:17:43] Kurt Warner: You got it. Thanks, man. Take care.

[01:17:50] Kurt Warner: What a

[01:17:50] Chris Dorris: stud. How good is that? Huh? So many cool mic drops. I wanna live in such a way that I make my [01:18:00] past self jealous.

[01:18:05] Chris Dorris: Always hold onto your confidence and always be ready for your shot. You know, I wanna go back and for Scotia. Elaborate on a, an exchange that we had there. He reminded me of Jack Nicholas. Just then, it’s like the way he’s paying attention to his history, like the mantra is, I use history but don’t permit history to use me.

[01:18:28] Chris Dorris: So like the way he’s even framing, like, you know, he might not really, but he’s not looking at having sat the bench for riding pine three outta four years in college as a failure. That’s a huge takeaway away is viewing things in ways that inspire you. Choosing to interpret reality in ways that have you feel inspired in alignment with your spirit.

[01:18:55] Chris Dorris: Have you feel elevated to, have you feel enthused? Have you feel [01:19:00] competent to have you feel expert that, have you feel ready? That have you feel, I don’t know if I already said enthused, but that have you feel confident? Choosing to story your reality in ways that fuels you. That’s just so profound. And I’ll tell you, I love the phrase be content but not satisfied.

[01:19:27] Chris Dorris: And I think I heard what he meant by that. It doesn’t mean be dissatisfied, it means just, you know, don’t stop expecting more miracles. Right? Be content with what you got. Yeah. I’m so grateful for the life that I have. It’s is beautiful. Everything that is going on is a blessing and magnificent. And even the struggles.

[01:19:49] Chris Dorris: And what else, you know, can I create what other magic is there for me to create in this, incomprehensibly, improbable event that we call life? [01:20:00] Good stuff, man. I’m thankful for that. And thanks again, Adam Archi, a man. For facilitating that intro. All right everybody. Thanks for tuning in as always, and until next time,

[01:20:13] Kurt Warner: great miracles.

 

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