TYSONS CORNER, Va. — The restaurant game before an away game is one of Kurt Warner’s favorites, a fringe benefit of being a well-paid football player that never gets old.
At dinner, Warner and his wife, Brenda, will sit back and watch as one or more of their seven children scan the dining area like a quarterback going through his progressions on the field.
Once they target a table, Warner, the Arizona Cardinals’ quarterback, quietly adds that dinner tab to his own. At a steakhouse here last Saturday, a family of four received a free meal without knowing the identity of their benefactor.
The Warners cooked up the idea many years ago, after their food-stamp-cashing days were behind them and Warner had become the toast of St. Louis by leading the Rams to victory in the 2000 Super Bowl.
They thought it would be a playful way of instilling in their children the joy of giving. “We want our kids to grow up knowing that because of football we are so blessed,†Warner said Wednesday. He added: “We never want them to lose sight of what it’s really about. Our circumstances are not the most important thing. It’s what we do with those circumstances.â€
