Quarterback Kurt Warner, the Arena Football League refugee who has turned the NFL on its ear this season, says he would've jumped at the chance to play in Canada had a CFL team expressed an interest. Warner, named the NFL's most valuable player this season after leading the St. Louis Rams (13-3) into Super Bowl contention, said during a conference call Thursday that his agent sent game film to CFL teams while Warner was with the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers. Warner couldn't say which clubs were sent the tapes, but no club called back. "I was open to that (playing in CFL) from the time I left college until I got the chance in the NFL, but they were never really interested," Warner said. "Up there, it's more of small man or mobile quarterback-type league and I was more a pure dropback quarterback with a strong arm so I think they shied away from me a lot because I wasn't the prototypical Canadian league quarterback." "I know my agent did (send films to CFL teams) and had contact with them. My coach in the Arena League (John Gregory, a former CFL coach with Saskatchewan and Hamilton) was a coach in Canada for 12 seasons so I know they knew about me. But I never got any tryouts or offers to play." (2000)
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