Chip Hilton Lives … Saturday Cup O’Chiefs

My first sports hero was a guy named Chip Hilton.

Now, Hilton was not a real person. He was the hero in a series of 24 novels written by Hall of Fame basketball coach Clair Bee. Chip was an outstanding schoolboy athlete, who played football, baseball and basketball. He faced all sorts of trials and tribulations in each book, but in the end Chip always came out of the competition with dignity and victory.

The NFL’s current version of Chip Hilton retired on Friday. After a dozen seasons in the league, Kurt Warner said he’s done playing football. With his wife and seven children by his side, he told the Arizona Cardinals that after going through a dozen years of trials and tribulations, and coming out of those with dignity many victories, it was time for the final chapter.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Warner said. “I don’t think I could have dreamt it would have played out the way it has. But I’ve been humbled everyday that I’ve woke up the last 12 years.”

Warner led the St. Louis Rams to a victory in Super Bowl XXXIV, and started Super Bowl XXXVI for the Rams and XLIII for the Cardinals. He was named the NFL’s MVP in 1999 & 2001. His career completion rate of 65.4 percent is the second highest in league history. In the regular season and playoffs, he threw for a combined 36,296 yards and 239 TD passes.

The story of Warner’s career in pro football sounds like it was made up, written like a part of the Chip Hilton series. Yes, he was the starting quarterback in three Super Bowls. Yes, he was the NFL’s MVP twice and went to four Pro Bowls.

And yes, he struggled to survive in pro football after finishing up at Northern Iowa. Warner played in the Arena League, in NFL Europe, all the while returning home to Iowa in the off-season and working at a Hy-Vee, where he stocked shelves.

Even after he led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory and then back for another shot at a title two years later, the bottom dropped out of his career. He was benched by the Rams, Giants and Cardinals in this decade. When he lost the starting job in Arizona to No. 1 draft choice Matt Leinart in 2006, everyone believed his career was over.

Instead, he took over for an injured Leinart after five games of the ’07 season and started the next 48 of 49 games. That included helping the Cardinals reach the Super Bowl last year, where they gave the Steelers quite a tussle before losing in the final minutes. This year, Arizona was back in post-season action, rolling into the second round before losing to New Orleans.

“If there was one thing I’ve learned from reading this thing (the Bible) is that it’s a bunch of stories about average people, where God came in and did something extraordinary with them,” Warner said. “To me, that’s exactly what he did with my life. I was an average, ordinary guy working in a grocery store, trying to make ends meet playing Arena Football and then God entered into the equation, and he’s done something pretty extraordinary over the last 12 years.”

Warner’s willingness to address his faith has put people off over the years. But in this era where our sports stars regularly try to hide their dark sides, there’s never been a whiff of Warner not standing by his faith and his family. From those first days in St. Louis when sports fans got to first learn about Brenda Warner, some were put off by the sugary displays of hugs and kisses and her rooting position in the front row.

But he remained true to his beliefs and his loves, excelling when given a chance to play and weapons were provided to make an offense go.

Chip Hilton always found a way to overcome problems in the sports competitions generated from the imagination of Bee. There’s nothing made up about what Kurt Warner accomplished in his life to this point. His story provides lessons that every single person can learn from, whether they can throw a football 50 yards or 50 inches.

“The one thing I always wanted to leave people with when I thought about my career ending, is I wanted people to remember that anything is possible,” Warner said. “That with my story, the way it came about, the fact that it took me so long to get here. I know there are a lot of people who gravitate to that part of it, that understand the struggle, understand that it takes a little bit longer to try achieve your goals and that there are moments when you want to give up and you question if you should continue to follow your dreams.

“It’s not the way I threw the football, it’s not particular games that I won, but that they remember that here’s a guy that believed, that worked hard,” he added. “Although things didn’t always go in his favor, he continued to press through, and with his faith in himself and his faith in God, he was able to accomplish great things.”

On Friday, just like all those Chip Hilton books, Kurt Warner’s career had a happy ending.

SUPER BOWL XLIV HYPE: DAY 5

REMEMBER ME SHOTS – “You kill the head and the body will die .That’s usually how it goes, you hit the quarterback and the whole team feels it.” Those were the words of Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams this week as he talked about his unit putting pressure on Colts QB Peyton Manning. “This guy’s got a great clock in his head. The big thing is that he throws the ball so early that we’re going to have to do a good job of finding ways to get to him and when we do get to him we’re going to have to make sure he gets a couple ‘remember me’ shots when we get there.” When asked about Williams comments, Indy head coach Jim Caldwell said: “I just think that comments that individuals make, we can’t control that. They use whatever motivational tools they’d like to. And that’s up to him. I’m not going to pass judgment on anything he says. We’re going to focus in on what we do and go from there.”

COLTS INJURY REPORT – The Colts issued an official injury report for the bye week and listed S Melvin Bullitt (knee), DE Dwight Freeney (ankle), RB Donald Brown (foot), and CB Jerraud Powers (foot). There were 17 players listed as probable, including the addition on Friday of WR Austin Collie. He was limited by a foot injury

TAKE THAT COLTS! – The Monster Jam is this Saturday night at the Superdome in New Orleans. Getting into the spirit of things, Cam McQueen and his truck, Nitro Circus, had some fun on Friday rolling on top a white car with blue paint spelling out “Colts” on the side.

SAINTS INJURY REPORT – There are eight players listed by New Orleans on Friday as questionable: CB Malcolm Jenkins (hamstring), CB Randall Gay (foot), WR Courtney Roby (knee), DE Will Smith (groin), LB Jon Vilma (knee), S Darren Sharper (knee), RB Lynell Hamilton (ankle) and OT Zack Strief (shoulder). There are 14 players listed as probable.

FIRST MEMBERS OF ALL-DECADE TEAM ANNOUNCED

The NFL’s all-decade team for the 2000s will be announced on Sunday in pre-game coverage on ESPN before the Pro Bowl.

But the league announced this week that there are 15 players on the Pro Bowl rosters for the AFC & NFC who are part of what will be a 53-player team. On the AFC team are San Diego TE Antonio Gates, New York Jets G Alan Faneca, Tennessee C Kevin Mawae, Baltimore LB Ray Lewis, Denver CB Champ Bailey, Denver S Brian Dawkins, Oakland P Shane Lechler and Cleveland KR Joshua Cribbs. Pro Bowl team members who will not play for obvious reasons that are on the all-decade team are QB Peyton Manning and DE Dwight Freeney of the Colts.

On the NFC team are Minnesota G Steve Hutchinson, Carolina DE Julius Peppers, Dallas LB DeMarcus Ware and K David Akers. Also part of the team is New Orleans s Darren Sharper.

ESPN will reportedly reveal the entire team at 4:30 CST on Sunday.

SIGNINGS, HIRINGS, MOVEMENT AND OTHER STUFF AROUND THE LEAGUE

• BILLS – named Bruce DeHaven as special teams coach.
• EAGLES – announced promotion of Howie Roseman to GM. Roseman had been vice president of player personnel.
• PATRIOTS – hired Corwin Brown as defensive backs coach.
• STEELERS – hired Jerry Olsavsky as a defensive assistant coach.

FROM THE PAGES OF SUPER BOWL HISTORY

On January 30, 1983, the Washington Redskins beat the Miami Dolphins 27-17 in Super Bowl XVII at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. The Dolphins went into the game as a three-point favorite, but the Miami defense could not slow down John Riggins.

The Kansas native set two Super Bowl records with 166 rushing yards and 38 rushing attempts. Along with a 15-yard pass that Riggins caught, he finished with 181 yards in total offense, more than the entire Miami team managed against the Redskins defense at 176 yards. He was named the game’s MVP.

Miami’s offense struggled all night, save for their possession to open the game. That’s when the Dolphins took a quick lead when QB David Woodley connected with WR Jimmy Cefalo on a 76-yard touchdown play. Through the rest of the game, Miami managed just 100 yards of offense. Washington got three points back with a 31-yard Mark Moseley FG. With two minutes left in the first half and the score tied 10-10, Miami grabbed the lead when Fulton Walker returned a kickoff 98 yards for a TD. The Redskins defense shutout the Dolphins in the second half, as Moseley kicked a 20-yard FG, Riggins scored on a 43-yard run and QB Joe Theismann threw a six-yard pass to WR Charlie Brown

The head referee was Jerry Markbreit. The national anthem was sung by Leslie Easterbrook, while the half-time entertainment featured the Los Angeles Super Drill Team. The television broadcast was done by NBC, with Dick Enberg and Merlin Olsen handling the commentary. A 30-second commercial was $400,000 and post-broadcast estimates put viewership at 81.8 million people. The victory for Jimmy Johnson made him the first head coach to win a college football national championship and a Super Bowl.

SAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY …

Born on January 30, 1960 in Norwalk, Connecticut was DB Skip Lane. He joined the Chiefs in the week before the final game of the 1984 season, and Lane had one tackle in that game. He played in three games earlier that season with the Jets. Lane went to training camp in ’85 with the Chiefs but did not make the roster.