I read the article “Marketing experts: Arizona Cardinals avoid PR nightmare with Kurt Warner deal” from the Phoenix Business Journal on Wednesday, March 4th. The article talks about how important it was for the Arizona Cardinals to resign their star quarterback Kurt Warner. Warner led the underdog Cardinals all the way to the Super Bowl this year before losing to the Pittsburg Steelers. Even though the Cardinals won their division this year they were still heavy underdogs throughout the playoffs. During the playoffs, behind Kurt Warner, the Cardinals played great and almost won it all.
The Cardinals first offered Warner a contract worth $20 million over two years, but Warner was looking for $28 million over two years. They eventually met in the middle and agreed to a two year $23 million dollar deal.
Many of the fans of the Cardinals were worried if they didn’t resign Warner they would wind up being “the same old Cardinals”, something the team has moved away from. Recently the Cardinals have been respectable but in years past they have been at or near the bottom of the league with little hope. This year was the team’s most successful year since 1947 when they were located in Chicago. This is largely due to Warner’s leadership and his ability to find the open receiver better than most.
I personally think that if the Cardinals would not have resigned Warner a lot of people would have been upset. I also think they have enough talent that losing Warner and getting another decent quarterback comfortable in the system would have been enough for them to stay at their current level. That being said I think this was the best PR decision because it is proven that he can lead this team deep into the playoffs, and fans love it when they have a proven leader. Fans would be more apt to give up on a new quarterback early in the year if things weren’t going good, but would probably stick behind Warner for a few extra games.
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Mike, I agree that the Cardinals made a good decision to keep Kurt Warner as the quarterback, even if that meant paying him more money. He obviously deserves it and he proves that he can take this team all the way. I think that a lot of Cardinal fans should be happy with this decision as well as excited for the years to come. Warner obviously brings hope for the Cardinals because they haven’t been this good for a long time. I hope to see success for the Cardinals in the next few years.
ReplyDeleteSports is a huge public relations game. When athletes finish up a contract there are a lot of discussing and negotiating to determine if that player is going to leave or stay with their team. I think it is great for the Cardinals that Kurt Warner decided to stay with the team. It still amazes me that with the failing economy that professional athletes can still ask for a $28 million dollar paycheck and actually get it. I can see the next sports strike because of an inability to pay their high salaries.
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