Amsterdam is a long way from Cedar Falls, Iowa, even farther from Lafayette, La., and none of the those locales has anything in particular to do with the NFL. But a decade ago, that city is where Kurt Warner was a starting quarterback, with Jake Delhomme his backup.

The stories of how Warner honed his quarterbacking skills while slinging groceries after his college days at Northern Iowa are rote by now, nine years after he led the St. Louis Rams to their only Super Bowl title. True NFL fans are familiar, too, with the Cajun Delhomme, whose drawl fit right in once he moved from Louisiana-Lafayette, then to the New Orleans Saints and on to the Carolina Panthers, whom he quarterbacked to its only Super Bowl appearance. The two will face each other today in the second round of the NFL playoffs, the 37-year-old Warner at the helm of the Arizona Cardinals, and Delhomme, on his 34th birthday, leading the host Panthers.

"We're fortunate," Warner said this week.

Given where they were a decade ago, that much is obvious. By now, Warner and Delhomme have appeared in 210 NFL regular season and playoff games. In 1998, they were the only two quarterbacks to report for duty with the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe, which is now defunct.

"I hadn't heard of him," Delhomme told reporters on a conference call this week.

"All I was hoping, no offense to Jake," Warner said on another conference call, "was that he would make a few more mistakes than me so that the coaches would give me a chance. If you just looked at it [in] black and white, you'd probably take a guy like Jake."

The job went to Warner, who led the league in passing that year. The NFL was no sure thing for either man, Warner at that point 27, Delhomme just 23. But the two said they worked together and forged a relationship that, a decade later, colors a playoff game at the highest level.

"I really learned a lot from him," Delhomme said. "It was only 10 games that we played together, but just watching his demeanor, it didn't faze him. Not too many things faze him. That's what I've always taken from him."

Today, they'll meet again in Charlotte, so far from Amsterdam and those obscure practices in an obscure league in which an obscure starting job would be determined. There, two careers began.

"I know that I'm always watching from afar and cheering Jake and hoping he does well," Warner said, "and always looking forward to the next opportunity where I get to sit down and talk to him."