Kurt Warner Is Not Sounding Anything Like a 'Dancing With the Stars' MVP

By Stacy Jenel Smith Posted Sep 20th 2010 12:00PM

Kurt Warner does not sound like he is having much fun cutting a rug right now. The Super Bowl MVP -- a multi-record-holding superstar quarterback -- is rehearsing for his stint on 'Dancing With the Stars' that begins Sept. 20 and he admits he's frustrated.

"I think the hardest thing is not so much from a technical standpoint. It's making the transition from being really good at something to being really bad at something," he tells PopEater. "When you're used to being good and having success, that's probably the most difficult thing. You wonder, 'Why did I do this? I'm just no good.'"

Wow. How bad is he?

"The biggest thing is the technique is so hard, so different from anything I've done before. It's a struggle. I do feel I have some decent rhythm, but when it comes to the ballroom stuff, it can be something as simple as picking up on the one count on music. Some of these things seem so elementary for people in music, but they're new for someone like me," he explains. "When I used to have 70,000 fans screaming at me, I was able to tune them out. I didn't even hear them. But now, unfortunately, I'm doing the same thing with the music. I can tune it out completely when I'm concentrating on what I'm doing."

On the plus side, he says he's looking forward to "speaking to a completely different audience than I've spoken to before and showing a different side of who I am." The sure-to-be future Hall of Famer notes, "I think life is all about challenges. It's so easy for us to stay where we're comfortable, but life is about pushing yourself to see what your limits are, to accomplish things people think you can't accomplish. We gain our identity from overcoming challenges."

He also believes it's a positive that he'll be showing "I can dance next to a beautiful woman for six to eight hours a day and still honor my wife." That was a matter of some consideration, he says, "being a Christian guy, a married guy."

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We pause as Kurt orders a smoothie and ask how dance training compares to two-a-days. "We're in the middle of two-a-days now," he says with a laugh, referring to his terpsichorean toil with designated ballroom pro Anna Trebunskaya.

Adds Warner, "I didn't really know what retirement was going to be. I never thought I'd be doing anything nearly as physically demanding as what I've done for the last however many years."

Nine months after officially putting down the pigskin, he finds, "It's probably busier than it's ever been. A bunch of great opportunities came our way and I didn't want to turn any of them away. What better way to really step into retirement and embrace it than keeping busy and challenging myself with new things I want to be good at?"

Depending on how long he lasts in the 'DWTS' competition, he might have to juggle his dance rehearsals with his new color analyst job for Fox Sports' NFL coverage. Unlike the ballroom dancing, commentating seems to come naturally to him. "It's pretty easy, yeah. I love the game and talking about it is definitely something I enjoy. I feel like have something to bring to the table, and I like staying involved, cheering for the players."

Warner says he's not worried about embarrassing himself on 'DWTS.' In fact, he insists, "I don't ever take myself too seriously. On the football field, you don't show much of that."

However, he smilingly admits that some of his seven children are "a little apprehensive" about the prospect of Dad "'out on the dance floor embarrassing me.'" Time will tell whether he'll trip the light fantastic, or just trip up.