Brenda became his girlfriend, whom Kurt first met while country line-dancing in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Brenda and Kurt Warner were married in 1997 after a 5-year courtship. He adopted Brenda's two children, Zachary and Jessie, from a previous marriage (the Warners have since had two other children), and has helped see Brenda through some tough-and tragic-times of her own.

As an infant, Zachary, now 10, suffered brain damage after landing on his head when he accidentally slipped from the arms of Brenda's first husband. Fortunately, Zachary has made great strides from those bleak days when doctors, who first thought he wouldn't live, told Brenda her son would never walk, talk, or see.

Just a year before Brenda and Kurt were married, Brenda's parents, Larry and Jenny Carney, died when a tornado ripped through their Mountain View, Arkansas, home.

Although he may not be seeking it, fame and money-plenty of both-fell into Warner's lap after he and the Rams ascended to the top of the NFL ladder with their Super Bowl triumph over the Tennessee Titans in January 2000. Before then, Warner could walk into a restaurant around the St. Louis area with his family and not be noticed.

After the Super Bowl win, Warner moved Brenda and the kids into a more secluded home so he can give them-and himself-an oasis from all the attention.

"It's something we think we need to do for our family so we can have quality family time and not have people coming up to our front door and leaving stuff on our porch to sign," he says. "Things like that take away from the whole family atmosphere."

One of the first things Warner did after signing his new contract was donate 10 percent of his earnings to his church, St. Louis Family Church, whose pastor Jeff Perry and his wife Patty have taken Kurt and Brenda under their wing and helped the couple deal with their thrust into the national spotlight.

Achieving notoriety and wealth can, of course, be a dangerous mix for an athlete. Stories of pros getting caught in life's fast lane, or facing financial or legal troubles, appear on the sports pages almost as regularly as box scores.

Warner, however, says he has his priorities in order. "Although obviously [there have been] great blessings that the Lord has given me, I'm here to make a difference for Him," he says. "As long as I stay focused on that, I don't think I'll ever allow it to take away my humble attitude toward it."

Confidence without arrogance. Fame without pride. Riches without greed. That's the spirit of Kurt Warner. And the spirit of St. Louis' quarterback represents more than just the spirit of a city, it represents the spiritual depth of a man whose life has become an open book that's worth reading.

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