Kurt Warner: ‘Underdog’ Story Not Just About Him Resonates with Many Fans, Film Audience
By Alex Murashko
Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner whose rise from an undrafted free agent to a two-time Most Valuable Player and Super Bowl MVP, said his story, told in the biopic American Underdog resonates with many who see the film.
“Although my story is well-documented as the ‘athlete who worked in a grocery store,’ I think so much of life for most of us, is about having our ‘supermarket moment,’ right? We have our moments where we find ourselves someplace we don't want to be, where we never expected to be….[and] at a particular time that we're chasing after whatever it is that we're chasing,” Warner said during his interview podcast on Think Eternity with Matt Brown (below).
He said it was during the times of struggle that he grew as an individual and he grew in his faith.
“To this day, I'm still growing in my faith. I'm still evolving in my faith,” Warner said. “Those moments helped me to reflect on who God is in my life. You go through these rough moments and you start to realize it's so much less about you, and it's about Him and what He wants to do with your life.”
Kurt Warner/KurtWarner.org screengrab
He said that the film, released in December 2021, captured not only the underdog story of his life but his wife, Brenda’s, and son’s story as well.
“The movie is called ‘American Underdog,' but it maybe should have been plural, as in ‘American Underdogs,’ because it wasn't just my underdog story that everybody kind of understands, but my wife had an underdog story with all the things that she had to overcome, such as being a single parent, being a single parent of a child with intellectual and developmental disabilities and those challenges,” Warner said. “Then, the underdog that is my son, Zach, who was a primary aspect of the movie as well, and how our three stories kind of were interwoven, and we learned and taught each other through different things that we went through.”
“By every right, he is a huge underdog, too, with everybody that overlooked him and told him what he couldn't do and what he couldn't accomplish. Watching him continually grow, evolve, and overcome has been incredible.”
Warner said that he believes that his story portrayed in the movie resonated with so many people because audiences may have anticipated watching a football story, but after viewing the film realized it was “a life story about relationships”.
“It's about being together and hanging together and supporting each other through the good times and through the bad,” he said.
At the time of the film’s release, Warner told The Christian Post: “People need to see real life. They need to understand that this is a real story. All of these things really did happen. Your circumstances don’t have to be what defines you, your circumstances don’t have to be what shapes the final narrative of your life.”
On the Warner’s First Things First Foundation website about page it states, “Brenda and I are living proof of the importance of having strong faith in God, in yourself and in your talents.”
To learn about Kurt and Brenda’s First Things First Foundation go to KurtWarner.org.
Most of us have moments of feeling overlooked, facing setbacks, and wondering if our dreams will actually come true.
— Matt Brown (@evangelistmatt) April 7, 2025
Kurt Warner went from stocking shelves at a grocery store to becoming a Super Bowl champion and Hall of Famer.
Kurt’s story reminds us that even in seasons of… pic.twitter.com/Wm7KmTLIa1
Alex Murashko is a Christ follower, husband, journalist and writing team leader for Think Eternity, a site for powerful faith content to help you live the fulfilled life in Jesus. Murashko is also founder of Media on Mission.
Connect on X: @AlexMurashko.