No matter how hard people try, I refuse to worry about Kurt Warner.

Despite the I-know-something-you-don’t-know laugh he gave when asked on ESPN this afternoon if he had been in contact with another NFC West team, I refuse to show an ounce of concern.

His agent left town yesterday without a deal?  Whoopee.

He’s not going anywhere, and everybody knows it.

Where else is he going to go?  What other team offers the combination of:

1.)    A need for a quarterback.

2.)    The money he wants.

3.)    A system he likes.

4.)    Weather that allows that system to flourish.

5.)    A team that was as close to winning it all as the Cards were.

6.)    A city where his wife and seven kids want to live.

7.)    A wide receiver like Larry Fitzgerald.

Plus, he keeps talking about how his “perfect scenario” is to remain with the Cardinals.  When he talks about going elsewhere, he does so in tones that I usually reserve for folding laundry or taking out the trash.  In other words, a chore that he’d just as soon not do.

Plus, don’t you think that other teams know he doesn’t want to leave Arizona?  I do.  That he might just be using them for leverage to get a better deal for Arizona?  I do.

He might, and I emphasize might, get a bigger dollar offer from another team.  But will it be a better situation?  He’s a soon-to-be 38 year old quarterback in a system that is cut to fit his skill set like a perfectly tailored suit.

I understand his position.  He just took the Arizona Cardinals to the promised land.  He had a career year and wants a paycheck to match.  But the Cardinals have made, what I believe to be a very fair, market-driven offer.  It would be irresponsible to just give him franchise QB type money.  Instead it’s an offer based on what he is….an aging quarterback with a specific set of skills.

I think the Cardinals have most of the leverage here; they’re in the position of strength.   The best thing the agent has going for him isn’t the Jets or 49ers or Chiefs or Bears.  It’s you.  The fans.  And the perception that if this goes wrong it will be the Cardinals fault no matter what.

He’s banking on the pressure you will apply to the team to get a deal done no matter what.  Otherwise, the team runs the risk of being branded by the fans as (all together now) the Same Old Cardinals.  The ones who are too cheap to bring back the guy who took the team to a Super Bowl.  The agent is using the Cardinals history against them.

Quarterback Kerry Collins just got a two year extension from the Titans worth 15 million.  8.5 million in guaranteed money.  Word is he was waiting to see what Warner was going to get but decided, why wait?  Where else is Collins going to go that will be an upgrade?

Sound advice Kurt.  So shop around, see what the market tells you you’re worth.

But there is not a shred of doubt in my mind at the end of the day he’ll realize what I suspect he already knows.  What everybody knows.  He’s not going anywhere.