Dick Vermeil says Kurt Warner is "a movie, a book."

No, this is America after all, where things have to be bigger, brighter and better than anywhere else. If someone's doing the football version of rags-to-riches in the land of milk, honey and dot.com companies, they're going to have to give it a little more oomph than that.

Such as throwing for a Super Bowl-record 414 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning 73-yard strike in the final two minutes, to lead his team to victory on the biggest stage in sports.

That's what ex-stock boy Kurt Warner did Sunday night in front of a mesmerized international television audience and 72,625 in the Georgia Dome. Warner, who had become a national story already this season by stepping in for injured quarterback Trent Green and setting team and league records, capped an incredible fairytale by winning the Super Bowl MVP award in leading the St. Louis Rams to a 23-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans.

And the coup de grace came from the guy who just a season ago was the Rams' scout-team quarterback, with only a history of NFL Europe and Arena League experience behind him?

He still seemed unaffected by the whole thing.

"I don't ever think of my story as a Hollywood story," Warner told a throng of reporters, each of whom was probably secretly calculating the revenue to be had from nabbing the screenplay rights to this collection of unbelievable facts.

"It's just my life. I take it one day at a time, and it has been a great year. What else can you say? I am truly blessed."

Along with the the grocery stocking and pro-football journeyman history in Europe and through parts of Iowa, the rest of Warner' incredible journey has been chronicled umpteen times: He's a devout Christian, using every opportunity in front of the media to thank God for what has happened to his life; he's a tremendous family man with three children, having married a woman with two kids from a previous marriage; he devotes an extraordinary amount of time working for charities, particularly those aiding at-risk youths.

"Kurt Warner is not a fairytale. He's real life," Rams coach Dick Vermeil said. "He is an example of what we'd all like to be on and off the field.

"He is a great example of persistence and believing in himself and a deep faith. He has a willingness to accept coaching and criticism, and is willing to work and play a subordinate role until he gets his opportunity, and then takes advantage of it.

"What else can you write?" Vermeil continued. "He is a movie. He is a book, this guy."

This guy didn't feel like any of those midway through the fourth quarter. After seeing the Rams' 16-0 lead completely gutted thanks to constant defensive pressure and a surging Tennessee offense, Warner seemed to be in the same daze as his teammates. He had been sacked only once, but had been hammered by rushing defenders countless times after throwing and had seen four of his passes deflected at the line of scrimmage.

"That's probably the most I got hit this year," Warner said. "They've got a great defensive front, and they put a lot of pressure on us. They didn't give me a lot of time to scan the field and spot receivers."

But at least Warner had time to spot Isaac Bruce down the right sideline with 2:12 left in the game. Just as Warner released the ball that Bruce would turn into the winning 73-yard pass-and-catch play, Defensive Rookie of the Year Jevon Kearse blasted in to him.

"I didn't get a chance to see him catch the ball," said Warner, whose final completion allowed him to better Joe Montana's Super Bowl record of 357 yards passing in a Super Bowl. "I was down on the ground. I did lift my head up and saw that he was running with it."

"Kurt had a marvelous game," Titans coach Jeff Fisher said graciously. "He took a pounding. He was getting hit, hit, hit, but he just hung in there and made the big plays to win the game."

Still, Warner wasn't one to dwell on what contributed to his increasing stardom. He didn't want to talk about his first touchdown throw either, a nine-yard look-in to Torry Holt with 7:20 left in the third quarter. That score, coming after three Jeff Wilkins field goals, had given the Rams their 16-0 lead.

Instead, Warner wanted to talk about the trust the Rams coaching staff exhibited in him, handing over the reins to a relatively unknown who didn't even earn a start in college until his senior season at tiny Northern Iowa.

"Everybody -- the players, the coaches, coach Vermeil ... their belief in me has been tremendous," said Warner, deflecting the spotlight. "To hand the job over to me, having never played in a regular-season NFL game, takes a lot of courage.

"But they obviously saw something in me that they felt I could bring them to this level ... so I love the coaches, I love everybody on this football team. They stuck with me through this whole season. I told them from day one that I was only going to get better, and I was going to prove every one of them right."

What could get better than this? Warner, himself, might have come up with the answer.