Super hangover

MACOMB, Ill. -- Kurt Warner knows who to blame for his awful 2002 season.

Adam Vinatieiri, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick engineered New England's Super Bowl upset over St. Louis the previous winter, leaving the Rams in a funk that caused them to start 0-5. They rallied for five straight wins, but finished 7-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time since that magical 1999 title season.

"I think we started last season looking backward, hanging on to the year before," says Warner, who had just three TD passes and 11 interceptions during an injury-plagued season in which he was 0-6 as a starter. "Being down and looking back are not the best way to go into a season."

By the time the Rams recovered, they were just about out of the playoff race and Warner was on the sidelines with a broken pinky and later a broken hand. He learned that even superstar quarterbacks aren't immune from the criticism that goes with the position.

Even as the Rams rallied behind Marc Bulger, the sourness continued. The low point was a dispute fueled by Warner's wife, Brenda, who said on a local radio show that she, and not the team, asked for her husband's hand to be X-rayed.

The soap opera is over now, even if a few incomplete passes by Warner would probably provoke pro-Bulger calls on radio talk shows. After a month in their remote Illinois training camp, the Rams and Warner are ready to take back what they see as their rightful place as the NFL's pre-eminent team.

In other words, no quarterback controversy and no wife controversy. Brenda Warner is back in the stands letting the television cameras seek her out, not the other way around.

"Blown out of proportion," is what Warner says about the furor over his wife.

And blown out of proportion is what Warner's teammates say about his on-field problems.

"I don't think there was ever anything wrong with him. It was just a lot of things that didn't work right. He's still the same player he always was," says Torry Holt, one of the receivers who until last season made Rams games look like track meets -- Warner to Holt on one side, Warner to Isaac Bruce on the other, Warner to Az-zahir Hakim up the middle.

Still, some stats don't lie.

In 1999, the hitherto obscure Warner stepped in after Trent Green was injured and led the Rams to the NFL title, winning the regular-season and Super Bowl MVPs. In 43 starts through the 2001 season, he threw for 98 touchdowns and 53 interceptions and had superior passer ratings of 109.2, 98.3 and 102.4.

In 2001, he was voted MVP again.

Last season -- the lost season -- his rating was 67.4 If that's not a bad season, what is?

As Warner and coach Mike Martz will tell you, there were other factors beyond the injuries and the post-Super Bowl funk.

There were two seemingly minor free-agent departures: Hakim, the third wide receiver, to Detroit, and offensive right tackle Ryan Tucker to Cleveland.

This year they lost the reliable fourth receiver Ricky Proehl, who thought about retiring, then signed with Carolina.

But the Rams never found anyone to fill Hakim's spot in the offense. And Tucker's absence -- the inexperienced John St. Clair took his place -- left Warner under pressure and subject to the injuries that finally knocked him out.

"How do you blame Kurt for that?" asks Martz, who after the season hinted Bulger might be given a shot at challenging in camp, then quickly gave Warner his job back. "With free agency, it sometimes doesn't look that important when you lose someone you think you can replace. But you find out later how big it is."

This year, the offensive line problem seemingly was solved when the Rams traded with New Orleans for Kyle Turley. But Orlando Pace, the left tackle, remained a holdout, backup Grant Williams has a bad back, and St. Clair -- Martz says he's much improved -- is currently at the position.

But what excites Martz and his quarterback most are two rookie wide receivers: Kevin Curtis, the third-round pick, and Shaun McDonald, taken in the fourth round.

"Kevin is faster than Torry and maybe Isaac and he may be just as good," says Martz, who loves to rave about the potential of offensive prospects. "I'm not worried at all that we'll be back to three or four effective receivers."

The major concern about Warner is his health.

There remain questions about an unreported thumb problem that was hindering him even before he was hurt. Those suspicions started after the Rams' loss to the New York Giants in the second game of the season when Warner's last pass went seriously awry and was intercepted.

After watching him zip passes in a morning drill to Bruce, Holt and, yes, Curtis, nothing appeared seriously wrong. He followed that with a 7-for-7 performance in an exhibition against defending champion Tampa Bay, which has beaten the Rams each of the past three seasons.

"I'm telling you, it's all in the attitude," Warner says. "We were just dragging at the beginning of last year because of that Super Bowl loss. We thought we could just show up and go back there again.

"This year, we're relaxed. This year, it's cool. This year, we're not the favorites."

Does that mean, say, a 12-4 season?

"Four?" he responds. "I don't know if we'll lose that many."