Amsterdam: Cradle of quarterbacks?

For Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme, the road to this weekend’s NFC divisional playoff game between Arizona and Carolina ran through Amsterdam.

Ten years ago, Warner and Delhomme were teammates on the Amsterdam Admirals of the now-defunct NFL Europe. Warner arrived as a veteran of three Arena Football League seasons, viewing the Europe experience as a last chance to catch on with an NFL team. Delhomme came in after a season spent on the New Orleans Saints practice squad.

“Jake had the stronger arm, he moved better, could make the big throws and big plays a lot better than I could,” Warner told the Associated Press. “All I was hoping, no offense to Jake, was that he would make a few more mistakes than me so that the coaches would give me a chance.”

Warner won the starting job and led the league in passing yardage, earning him his NFL shot. A year later, Warner would be the NFL’s most valuable player while leading the St. Louis Rams to the Super Bowl. Delhomme’s NFL crossover would take longer, but by 2003, he too would be starting in the Super Bowl.

And now they meet again in Saturday’s playoff game. “Only in America can that happen,” said Al Luginbill, the former Amsterdam coach.

Trivia time

When did NFL Europe debut?

A sorry sight

This hasn’t been the best January in Joe Paterno’s long life.

First, his Penn State football team gets trounced in the Rose Bowl. Then, his statue outside Beaver Stadium gets defaced by vandals, who actually cut the bronze glasses off the face of the statue last weekend. Penn State plans to replace the glasses, though it initially was unclear to school officials how much that might cost. Either that, or the real JoePa gets fitted for contact lenses.

Paying the price

It is a traditional hazing ritual in professional sports: veteran players ordering rookies to perform menial tasks, such as carrying luggage to the team bus or bringing food to practice.

Evidently, Sacramento Kings rookie Jason Thompson had been remiss in bringing bagels and cream cheese to practice -- and wound up paying for it. Recently after practice, he walked to the parking lot and found his Escalade filled with popcorn -- front seat, back seat, even the glove compartment.

To borrow a phrase, that is not the way to be faked into the popcorn machine.

Trivia answer

NFL Europe began in 1991 as the World League of American Football, with 10 teams competing in the United States and Europe. After two seasons and a two-year hiatus, the league returned in 1995 as a six-team, all-European venture known as NFL Europe.

And finally

Texas football Coach Mack Brown, to the Dallas Morning News, on one consequence of having 68 teams qualify for bowl games this college postseason: “It is an exciting time. I see 7-5 teams throwing Gatorade on their coach.

“At Texas if we were 7-5 they would be throwing something on me, but it wouldn’t be Gatorade, I will tell you that.”

-- Mike Penner