In a recent Thursday interview with KTAR radio’s Doug and Wolf show, former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner talked about the man who once upon a time replaced Warner as the starting quarterback in St. Louis. Specifically, Warner addressed whether he thinks Marc Bulger, a backup in Baltimore last season, still wants to be a starting quarterback in the NFL.
Though Warner was careful to say that it’s not a “huge knock” to not want to be a starter, Warner explained that, in his view, “football [isn’t] everything” to Bulger.
“For too many guys, it’s all about winning and losing, it’s all about starting, it’s all about how much money you can make,” Warner said. “And that’s not Marc Bulger.”
Warner pointed out that Bulger “got beat up pretty good” as the starter in St. Louis, and that it wouldn’t surprise Warner to learn that Bulger is “happy” as a backup, and that “he can just enjoy life and not have to worry about the pressure of being an NFL starter and everything that goes with it.” Again, Warner was careful not to phrase his assessment as criticism, and Warner said he thinks that Bulger would want to start again if he finds the right situation.
In other words, it sounds like Warner thinks Bulger happily has entered the clipboard phase of his career. Unlike Warner, who was continuing to push for consideration to be the starter in Arizona, even when the belief was that he’d be serving merely as the understudy to Matt Leinart.
And that’s really the most significant aspect of Warner’s comments. In analyzing Bulger’s attitude toward the game, Warner possibly has revealed that he wasn’t able to be fully happy unless he was the guy with the ball in his hands.