Kurt Warner is on a mission from God.

2009 will be a significant year for many reasons. The world and the country face several daunting environmental and economic challenges. But 2009 holds another significance that may be overlooked. It marks the ten year anniversary of an event that came on so quickly...and then seemingly vanished just as hurriedly only a few years later.

In the NFL preseason of 1999, St. Louis Rams quarterback Trent Green suffered a season-injury. Such was life for NFL fans in St. Louis. The Cardinals left town and then the crappy L.A. Rams brought their show to town and promptly took to losing easily. As a burly 28 year-old Arena Football League veteran and former grocery store shelf-stocker name Kurt lumbered out onto the field to take Green's place, nobody really noticed. Even most Rams season-ticket holders probably didn't think to much of the fact that the season would be lost before a game is even played.

But what happened next for the Rams and the deeply religious Kurt Warner (he wears 13 to show that no superstition is more powerful than God) should be nothing considered short of a miracle: The St. Louis Rams became the best team in football. Guys like the name of Favre and Manning and Young could do nothing but stand by as Warner and his loaded offense put up unheard of numbers.

For three consecutive years the Rams started 6-0 and were routinely the team to beat. Injuries to his hand would cost him some time, but when healthy he had the uncanny ability to make throws that almost seemed like he was dropping the ball to receiver 40 yards down field.

The amazing run for Warner and the Rams ended after the 2001 Super Bowl when an equally miraculous QB by the name of Brady and the New England Patriots upset the Rams with a game-winning field goal as time expired.

Warner was never the same. His hand injuries made him turnover-prone and his ball speed declined dramatically. When the dust had finally settled, though, Warner had two NFL MVPs and one Super Bowls MVPs and he and the Rams had shred the offensive record brooks.

For those of us who saw him tear through the NFL in 1999, his quick fade in 2002 and subsequent years was perplexing. Maybe teams just figured him out, maybe he got slow...sometimes an NFLers prime is brief if for no other reason than the pressure and beating they subject themselves to every weekend.

But now Warner, ten years older and as unwaveringly faithful as ever, has worked another Super Bowl back to the Super Bowl. He has taken a 9-7 Arizona Cardinals team (that's right, the Cardinals team that left St. Louis in '88) from playoff afterthought to the final two.

It is not like Warner has had to carry this team, much like he didn't have to carry those Rams teams with talent at every skill position...Larry Fitzgerald and Isaac Bruce, Boldin and Torry Holt, Steve Breaston and Az Hakim, Edge James and Marshall Faulk. Is Warner as good as the numbers he put up in St. Louis show or has he just been blessed with some of the best talent around him ever seen in the game, twice? Is it just coincidence? Or is it something...a little more...higher up?

John Smoltz's career is a reflection of my life. Seriously.

Shortly before I turned three years-old, the Atlanta Braves traded 36 year-old Doyle Alexander to Detroit for a young, balding fastballer by the name of John Smoltz. Since that fateful day a lot has happened in the world:

George Bush became president. America attacked Iraq. The Berlin Wall fell. The Braves went from worst to first. The Soviet Union fell. Atlanta lost an NHL team. Lightning struck twice and the Braves went back to the series. Greg Maddux came to Atlanta. The Braves won the division again...and baseball went on strike as Tom Glavine betrayed us. After three championships, Jordan tried to play baseball. The Bills lost four straight Super Bowls.

The Braves won the Series! The Browns left Cleveland. The Olympics came to Atlanta. The Braves won the division again and 18 year-old Andruw Jones tried to upset the Yankees. Jordan came back to win three more. The Falcons did the dirty bird all the way to the Super Bowl and Smoltz won the Cy Young. The Braves won four more division titles. Smoltz won the Cy Young. The Browns came back to Cleveland.

I went to high school. Another George Bush got elected. Everyone in baseball did steroids. Pro hockey returned to Atlanta. The World Trade Centers fell. Tom Glavine betrayed us, again. The Falcons drafted Mike Vick. Georgia Tech went to the Final Four. Smoltz came back from surgery to become the best closer of all time. I graduated high school.

I went to college and Smoltz returned to the rotation as the Braves won two more divisions. Lance Armstrong won six consecutive Tour's de France. The Braves ended their division win streak at 14, the longest record in any sport ever. Smoltz got divorced. The Hawks returned to the playoffs. Brett Favre retired and unretired. Smoltz got strikeout 3,000. Michael Phelps won eight gold medals.

I graduated college. Chipper Jones won his first batting title. The Tampa Bay Rays went from worst to first. Tech stopped UGA's football win streak at seven. The Braves lost 90 games for the first time since '90. I got a job.

And then, on January 8, 2009, a few months before my 24th birthday....



...John Smoltz left.