Kurt Warner: Stacked shelves on nights, then won the Super Bowl
Released by a professional team after a few weeks, he stacked supermarket shelves overnight for $5.50 an hour. Five years later he was the Super Bowl's most valuable player.
Undrafted and released
Kurt Warner was born in 1971 in Iowa and played quarterback at the University of Northern Iowa, where he started only in his final year. No team picked him in the 1994 draft. Green Bay signed him for training camp and let him go after a few weeks.
Night shifts
Back in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he took a night job stocking shelves at a Hy-Vee supermarket for $5.50 an hour, while training and coaching on the side.
The lower leagues
From 1995 he played indoor arena football for the Iowa Barnstormers, then spent 1998 with the Amsterdam Admirals in NFL Europe. The St. Louis Rams took him on as a backup.
What came of it
When the starting quarterback was injured before the 1999 season, Warner took over. He was named the league's most valuable player and the most valuable player of the Super Bowl in January 2000. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2017.
He kept working, paid his bills with a night shift and took every lower level chance he could. Being ready when the chance comes is a job in itself.
Where the facts come from: Kurt Warner with Michael Silver, All Things Possible (2000); Pro Football Hall of Fame biography, profootballhof.com.
