A Tale of Two QB's First it was Trent and Kurt.

Then it was Kurt and Trent.

They will be forever linked here in St. Louis.

Hop into the Wayback Machine with me and set the year for 1999. The Rams had signed quarterback Kurt Warner a year earlier, an undrafted free agent. After a year as the number three QB, he was moving up the depth charts to number two.

Behind Trent Green, the first free agent signed by the Rams that year. The hometown kid who would pilot the Rams new Mike Martz-designed offense. But before that, he was Trent Green, the 222nd player chosen in the 1993 draft. Trent Green, the guy who perservered through five years as an NFL backup and CFL reject. Trent Green, who finally got his chance and delivered, and now he and the Rams were on the verge of setting the league on fire, based on the first games of an electrifying preseason.

Rodney Harrison changed all that, with the hit that wrecked Trent's knee and pushed an untested Kurt Warner into the starting job. I don't think I need to fill in the rest. MVP. Super Bowl.

The next year, Kurt got hurt and Trent stepped in and played lights out. But since neither one would be happy being the other's backup, Trent moved on to Kansas City. And while he was putting together five big-number seasons with the Chiefs, Kurt's flame was seemingly going out. From another MVP season to a series of injuries, from St. Louis to New York to the desert.

Now they meet at a crossroads again. While Kurt was leading the Cardinals to a win here today over the Rams, Trent was lying on the turf in Houston, his head ringing inside his Miami Dolphins helmet after it collided with the knee of a Texans defender. And after what could be his second significant concussion in as many years, Trent could be facing the end of his career. And it's a shame that for many of us the last memories of his NFL days could be those two violent collisions. But they won't be the lasting memories.

With Matt Leinart on the shelf for a couple of months, Kurt will be the unquestioned number one again. A chance in the last year of his current contract to remind people of MVP Kurt, an opportunity for the comet of 1999-2001 to flash across the sky one more time. Granted, he is quarterbacking the Arizona Cardinals, a franchise who perennially finds a way to run in place. But knowing the kind of person Kurt Warner is, he will do all he can to have those Phoenix Birds take flight. And make some lasting memories. ¶ 10:16 PM