With Kurt Warner as the starting QB, the St. Louis Rams are 3-0 in the won-loss column.

Read it again.

With Kurt Warner as the starting QB, the St. Louis Rams are 3-0 in the won-loss column.

Most St. Louisans with even a passing interest in the local National Football League squad assumed the worst when free agent signee Trent Green was wheeled off of the field in the team's third preseason game.

We sure did.

And since Green's replacement, the ex-Iowa Barnstormer Warner, had virtually no NFL experience prior to the '99 season...some folks even called for (yikes!) the return of Tony Banks...shown above in a '98 game vs. the Big Red.

But Warner, who is modeling Barnstormer jersey #13 on the cover of the Iowa Arena League 1996 media guide shown above, has stepped in and tossed nine touchdown passes (three per game) in his first three starts...an NFL record.

Warner and the Rams have played well enough that Rams coach Dick Vermeil saw fit to play back-up QB (back-up to Warner, that is) Paul Justin in the second half of the Bengals blow-out. Most of us thought that we'd see Justin only if Warner failed...

Keep in mind, though, that Warner has weapons that Tony Banks didn't have during his tenure as a Ram. But Warner is much more mobile than Banks...and appears to make better decisions than Banks, both of which are important QBing components in the late '90's version of the NFL.