THE CARDINALS FILE
Home field: State Farm Stadium
Coach: Kliff Kingsbury
Offensive star: QB Kyler Murray
Defensive star: FS Budda Baker
2021 Season: Lost 34-11 to Rams in Wildcard Round
Super Bowls: None
Greatest Player: WR Larry Fitzgerald
Factoid: Former owner Bill Bidwell was a ballboy for the Chicago Cardinals, Al Capone’s favorite team.
How this isn’t a recycled question on Jeopardy, or if you want to take a cool $100 of one of your know-it-all friends ask this: What is the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in America?
You’ll probably hear Giants, Packers, Bears. Wrong. Wrong. And wrong.
Yes, it’s that team that plays in the desert, the Arizona Cardinals, that began its existence as the Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago and joined the NFL as a charter member in September of 1920 that owns that honor.
What else?
Uh. Ummm.
Therein lies the Arizona Dilemma. A lot of Americans think the Cardinals play in the Pacific Time Zone. They’re in the Mountain Time Zone. But even that is enough of deterrent to prevent East and Central Time Zone fans from finding the birds.
There might be more Cowboys fans in Arizona than Cardinals fans.
They’ve never played in a Super Bowl. Why, one could make a case that the Cardinals can challenge the Jaguars the NFL’s least relevant franchise. Oldest. Irrelevant. Ouch.
Cards fans are hoping for a breakthrough season. Quarterback Kyler Murray ended a somewhat contentious contract negotiating by agreeing to a five-year, $230.5 million extension. The contract only exacerbated relations with the club when it was leaked that a clause in the contract required Murray to do “independent film study.” That clause was removed but the stigma remains.
There have also been reports of Murray and coach Kliff Kingsbury having a strained relationship at times. But hey, this has become an all too familiar narrative in the NFL offseason.
As for this season, the Cardinals will have to find a way to beat the defending-champion Rams and NFC title contending-49ers. If Arizona can do that it will certainly feel good about any team it faces in the Super Bowl.
Somewhere, Al Capone will be smiling.