From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, famed quarterbacks meet in XL Super Bowl

In June 2006, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback “Big” Ben Roethlisberger sat hospitalized, reeling from a collision with a Chrysler New Yorker on a downtown Pittsburgh street.

Most of his teeth were damaged or gone and he had a fractured sinus cavity bone, a broken jaw, severely injured knees and a nine-inch gash on the back of his head. The injuries had, for the time being, put his future in the NFL in jeopardy.

Just four months before, Roethlisberger found himself leading his team to an unlikely Super Bowl XL victory, becoming the youngest quarterback in history to win the NFL’s biggest game.

From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

Kurt Warner got his first dose of the NFL with the Green Bay Packers in 1994, but not once did he take the field for an NFL game. The former grocery store stock boy moved on to the Arena Football League and later to the NFL Europe.

By 1998, the NFL’s St. Louis Rams had picked up the now-AFL legend for a backup role. Thanks to an injury to first-string quarterback and former Hoosier, Trent Green in 1999, the NFL-unproven Warner gained the reins of the Rams. And so began “The Greatest Show on Turf,” with St. Louis putting up gaudy offensive numbers and an unexpected Super Bowl ring.

Another appearance in the NFL’s biggest game in 2001 cemented his status as more than just a fluke in NFL stardom – or so we thought.

Then 2002 saw the crumble of Warner and the St. Louis Rams as the team got off to an 0-3 start before Warner broke his finger, limiting him to just two more games that year. By 2004, Warner was a free agent and back to his journeyman ways.

He would eventually move to New York and later to Arizona, only to be benched twice in favor of younger, inexperienced quarterbacks.

From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.

As we head toward Sunday’s Super Bowl XLIII, these two quarterbacks have literally come all the way back in their careers from depths most wouldn’t be able to pull out of.
Roethlisberger, who incredibly managed to return to action three months after his horrific accident, has led the Steelers past both the San Diego Chargers and the upstart Baltimore Ravens in a convincing, well-executed fashion.

Warner, on the other hand, regained his top spot on the quarterback ladder in Arizona and has directed the rise of one of the worst NFL franchises in history after taking down the Atlanta Falcons, the top-seeded Carolina Panthers and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Both have come back from extraordinary events to push their respective teams to greatness. But for their respective football clubs, this meeting brings together polar opposites in Super Bowl history.

Roethlisberger is leading a franchise back to a game no other team has been as successful in, while Warner takes a franchise to a game it has yet to see.

Regardless of which side you’re on, this game provides some fantastic stories to watch, and apart from who wins or who loses, it’s almost heart-warming to know what two of the game’s central characters have gone through to make it to Tampa, Fla.

I hope you’ll enjoy it.