Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme found their way in Europe before NFL success

Amsterdam Admirals roommates Kurt Warner and Jake Delhomme sat inside the Galaxy Hotel preparing to find out who would start their first game of the NFL Europe season. They were awaiting the coach's decision in advance of their trip from Amsterdam to Düsseldorf to play the Rhein Fire.

"Kurt you're going to start, Jake you're going to play," Delhomme recalled of the encounter with their coach in 1998. "He said this is how we're going to start off the season and go from there. 'I'm not asking either of you guys to win the game for us, just make sure neither of you guys lose the game for us.' "

Just don't lose the game was said to Kurt Warner, a potential Pro Football Hall of Famer with one Super Bowl title and two other appearances and to Jake Delhomme, the future Carolina Panthers' all-time leading passer who helped the franchise to its only Super Bowl appearance.

While the NFL International Series brings an annual dose of American football to Europe now, the league's presence there was once greater. NFL Europe was a developmental league from 1991 through 2007 and it featured mostly American players sprinkled in with a few national athletes.

Delhomme, then 21, was fresh out of college rooming with Warner, who was 26 with three years of Arena Football League experience prior to his time in Amsterdam.

"I think he was a little bit more mentally mature maybe at that point," Delhomme said about Warner.

Warner was in Europe to keep his football career alive. As a newly married man, he had been bagging groceries to make ends meet before he was called to play for the Admirals.

Warner told Yahoo Sports, "the only reason that I went was that it was a necessity if I was going to play in the NFL after Arena football. For a couple years, Europe was the best way to do that."

Not only was playing in Europe an important step football-wise, but it also helped him focus on his faith.

"I felt it was a great training ground as a Christian guy, kind of as a newly Christian guy," Warner said of the city with endless temptation.

Warner's route to church took him through the famed Red Light District, sort of a must-take road when trying to get to most places in the city. Warner consciously practiced his faith while abroad and started a bible study for some of the guys on the team.

"Some definite challenges for my faith, and really having to trust God in some of those situations," Warner said. "Not only the football and being in Europe away from my family, but spiritually."

Warner may have been a little older, perhaps more mature than some of the guys on the team, but that never hindered his relationship with Delhomme. They shared cultural adventures that built a lifelong friendship, with food leaving an impression … for better or for worse.

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For Warner, mayonnaise with French fries was new to him, and to fuel his body he created some little tricks to flavor up the food to his liking.

"Chocolate sprinkles on toast with butter was sort of our dessert we had over there," Warner said.

Delhomme had fewer food highlights.

"It wasn't like it was really exotic," Delhomme said of the cuisine. "I can't say it was anything. Just they did things differently."

What impressed Delhomme was the play of his roommate.

"That gave me a great deal of confidence being with him each and every day, seeing the success that he had," Delhomme said of Warner, who threw for a league-high 2,101 yards and guided the Admirals to a 7-3 regular-season mark in 1998.

"I could tell just from the practicing," Delhomme continued, "... very accurate with the football, very quick with his release, very clear with his decision-making, and ice water in his veins."

Delhomme wasn't necessarily in a now-or-never situation as Warner, but it was a step up from his competition in college (Louisiana-Lafayette), and a good feeder into the NFL.

"You did whatever the team told you to do because you were trying to secure a job," Delhomme said.

The facilities were limited in Amsterdam. Delhomme described it as you would play or practice and then head back to the hotel.

There was a lot of time to explore the city, and some of the Amsterdam natives acted as tour guides for the Americans.

"Each of our teams had a couple international players or players from that area so we would have them take us around a little bit and show us different things, so that part I enjoyed, "Warner said.

The time abroad helped open the door for success back in America. One year later, following a training camp injury to projected starter Trent Green, Warner led the '99 St. Louis Rams on a fairytale run that culminated in a Super Bowl XXXIV win. By the end of the 2001 season, he had won two league MVP awards and played in the second of three Super Bowls.

"I needed to play and just develop as a player," Warner said in regards to how NFL Europe aided his NFL career, "and then those things that I did well it helped me kind of sharpen those things so when I got on the big field and things actually seemed a little bit slower from how they develop, so that was a good transition for me."

Meanwhile, Delhomme's ascent to Pro Bowl and championship-stage status took a lot longer. He attempted just 86 passes in five seasons with the New Orleans Saints before getting a real shot with the Panthers in 2003. Like Warner, his first season as a regular starter resulted in a Super Bowl berth, though Carolina was denied the championship with a loss to the New England Patriots.

Delhomme's hopes of a second Super Bowl appearance were extinguished in January 2009 when Warner and the Cardinals upset the Panthers on the road, ultimately leading to Warner's third and final Super Bowl berth.

With five interceptions against Arizona that day, it's fair to say that Delhomme didn't follow his old coach's advice about "not losing the game."