The wives of sports stars generally remain in the background, but Brenda Warner is a notable exception.

A former Marine, Warner has never been shy about defending husband Kurt, a quarterback for several NFL teams. In 2003, when the MVP of the 2000 Super Bowl was benched in St. Louis, Brenda called a number of St. Louis talk radio stations to complain, suggesting in the process that perhaps her husband should be traded to a team that would appreciate him more.

Not long afterward, she was in the news again for shooing autograph seekers away from the table where she and Kurt were having dinner.

"She's guarded about her family because that is her world," Tina Wilkins, wife of St. Louis Rams placekicker Jeff Wilkins, said at the time. "People misunderstood her and thought she was too involved in her husband's life. But a lot of us wives want to make a phone call and tell it the way it is."

Warner also drew snide remarks for her appearance -- elongated fingernails and a short, spiky haircut that one sports commentator said made her look like Ivan Drago in the Rocky movie.  By the time her husband appeared in another Super Bowl, with the Arizona Cardinals in 2009, however, Brenda had redone her appearance to include long blonde hair and a different sense of fashion.

Born Jan. 17, 1967 in the small town of Parkersburg, IA, Brenda has always been overtly religious.
 
"Jesus Freak, that was my name," she told the Arizona Republic prior to the 2009 Super Bowl. "But I was proud of it."

A cheerleader in high school, she enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduation. She met her first husband while stationed on Okinawa, and their four-year marriage produced two children.

After the couple was divorced, Brenda moved back to Iowa to live with her parents, juggling food stamps and government medical benefits to make ends meet.

"The Christian thing didn't stop me from going through tough times, but I had that faith to hold me up when things were really bad," she said.

She met Kurt, four younger, at a country bar in 1992. They dated for five years and were married in 1997. Her parents were not at the wedding, however -- they were killed by a tornado after retiring to Arkansas.

Kurt's career was a roller coaster ride, and his rise from grocery store stockboy to pro quarterback has been well-documented. Undrafted out of the University of Northern Iowa, he came to the Rams from the Arena Football League, one of the few to make that leap, and soon blossomed into one of the NFL's best passers.

The couple had five children together, including twins. Brenda has involved herself in charity work wherever her husband has played.

"The football stuff is what people find exciting, but the real-life stuff to me is what means so much more," Brenda Warner said in the Arizona Republic interview. "When football is all over, there will be another chapter. We are not done with what's important."