Warner, Sanders, Namath talk Super Bowl at event
Thursday night’s NFL Honors ceremony at the Phoenix Convention Center was Super Bowl week’s most extravagant moment, drawing the league’s brightest young stars and retired legends.
The red carpet turned into an assembly line of national and local sports media members interviewing this year’s award nominees and the game’s greats from generations ago.
The evening was capped by the NFL’s top honor — Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott winning the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year award.
Before the show began, The Republic spoke with three Hall of Famers Kurt Warner, Barry Sanders and Joe Namath, whose careers range from the 1960s through the 2000s.
They discussed what makes the NFL Honors ceremony special, the key Super Bowl matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles’ dualthreat quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts — Kyler Murray and their views on the Cardinals head coach vacancy, and the game’s positive evolution from rule changes.
Namath, Sanders praise NFL Honors
Many media members’ eyes were watching as Sander, the Detroit Lions’ former MVP, and Namath, who led the New York Jets to a signature Super Bowl win in 1969, traversed the red carpet.
Sanders wore his Hall of Fame induction jacket to the event; Namath sort of looked like an average Joe with a modest suit and tie.
However, Sanders claimed he was giddy to meet today’s top players.
“It’s such an exciting night for the NFL,” Sanders said. “Just being able to see some of these current players and talk to them a little bit, rub shoulders with those guys is a treat for me.”
Namath loves how the game where the game is today compared to his playing days over 50 years ago, and enjoys how this year-end event lauds the best players.
“Every football player that gets to the level that these guys have gotten to have been passionate and put their lives into it and a lot of hard work,” Namath said.
“To see these guys at the top of the game getting honored, they earned every bit of it along with good teammates that helped. This is just wonderful. The sport is better than ever, and I’m just glad to be a humble part of it years ago, man. But they’re bigger, faster, stronger, better than we ever were.”
Sanders discusses Hurts vs. Mahomes, plus Kyler Murray
Sanders played in the 1980s and 1990s when quarterbacks were largely designated as passers and running backs did most work in their rushing attack. Now, the standard for most successful NFL teams is to have a mobile quarterback that can run out of the pocket nearly as well as their RBs.
That’s the case with Mahomes, who was named NFL MVP on Thursday, and Hurts, who were their team’s secondbest rushers during the regular season. Sanders said that’s totally different for quarterbacks from his era.
“It’s changed a lot,” Sanders said. “I think especially if you look at a guy like Jalen Hurts who you’re gonna have maybe 10 to 15 designed runs for a guy on any given game who can push the ball. He’s really learned to push the ball down the field. That’s a trait that’s really expanded
and improved for players, and that’s kind of what it takes now. The game has evolved into that.”
Sanders believes Sunday’s Super Bowl will provide an excellent to duel to watch.
“It’s gonna be a great matchup between these two. You look at obviously Patrick Mahomes who’s played exceptional over the last five, six years, however (long) he’s been in the league, Jalen Hurts who really came in strong last year and just built on that this year such a great team around him. So I’m not shocked to see these two teams playing for the big one.”
Sanders also showed respect to the Cardinals’ Murray for his passing ability and how he swiftly can get downhill.
“He fits right into that mold that we were just talking about. He’s a guy that can do a lot with his feet and certainly a solid passer,” Sanders said. “So hopefully he gets back healthy and he can kind of do what he was doing when he first got in the league, putting up big numbers and just being that great dual threat.
‘It’s a very desirable job’: Warner on Cardinals head coach vacancy
The Cardinals were down to three finalists for their open head coach position as of Sunday. But it was down to just two after Brian Flores was hired as Minnesota’s
defensive coordinator the next day.
The current remaining candidates for second interviews are New York Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and Cincinnati Bengals DC Lou Anarumo.
Hall of Fame QB and NFL on FOX analyst Terry Bradshaw stirred speculation on Tuesday during an interview with Newsday at Radio Row that Sean Payton didn’t want to become the Cardinals coach because “he don’t want to work with that quarterback.”
That was a blatant dig at Murray.
But Warner, who led the Cardinals to their last Super Bowl appearance in 2009 and still lives in the Valley, spoke contrarily to Bradshaw’s notion and said coaching Murray in sunny Arizona is a major attraction.
“First and foremost, to come here and live it’s an incredible place to be,” Warner said. “It’s a team that has had success in recent years, and so they’re doing the thing and making the steps that they need to be a competitive team, and you got an unbelievable young quarterback.
“We understand it’s a quarterbackdriven league, and so you’ve got a franchise guy that is extremely talented, has shown so many incredible things in his short stint in the National Football League. You piece all of those things together, and to me, it’s a very desirable job. It’s going to be a special job for whoever ends up getting that position.”