We can finally remove impossible from our vocabulary
Matt Wilhalme
It has finally happened to Arizona.We are a real boy, I mean sports town.
The Arizona Cardinals have done what no one thought was possible and won in the post-season.
People across the country were berating us as “bandwagon” fans just jumping on board at the very last moment.
If that is truly the case, why was the average attendance in University of Phoenix stadium this season 64,096?
Granted, I have lived in the valley for nearly 20 years and the running joke has always been that people go to Cardinals games to see the other team.
That is because everyone who lives in Arizona, including myself, is a transplant from another state where tickets to football games are willed from family member to family member over a lifetime.
For years strong willed season ticket holders have watched and winced as their team suffered countless losses and went through dozens of potential stars.
With every coaching change and player addition we were certain that every year we would break at least 8-8 but we didn’t..
It really is remarkable how everything worked out this season for the Arizona Cardinals.
The earth was at just the right angle necessary for the planets to align with the sun in such a way that it was ultimately possible for the Cardinals to make it to the big show.
They ended up in the worst division with the best record, 9-7, and drew the perfect opponents for the Cardinals style of play.
They ended up with the Atlanta Flacons in the first round with a rookie quarterback Matt Ryan with no real experience in the NFL having a pretty Cinderella year.
Home field advantage for the Cardinals proved to be too much for the young playmaker.
The volume inside of the stadium created false starts for the Falcons on offense and may have played into the fact that Ryan never changed his snap count because his linemen and receivers could not hear him clearly.
From there the Cardinals were forced to travel to the east coast, where they had failed to win a single game on the road, to play the Carolina Panthers.
This is where a strange magnetism took over the Cardinals defense and they became immensely attracted to the football every time Jake Delhomme attempted to run a play or get rid of the ball.
Six turnovers later and the Cardinals were on a plane back to Arizona to watch the outcome of another unlikely game, the Philadelphia Eagles against the New York Giants.
The Eagles were able to take advantage of a Giants team without their key receiver Plaxico Burress who is still recovering from a self-inflicted bullet wound.Oops.
They won the game in decisive fashion to earn themselves a trip to Arizona.
Nearly every sports writer across the country had picked the Eagles to win in an easy match against a Cardinals team they had dominated early in the season, 48-20, on Thanksgiving day.
With no support from the “experts”, the Cardinals defeated every team they needed to beat in order to earn a trip to Tampa Bay.
This landmark year for the Arizona Cardinals organization could be the start of a new era of Cardinals football.
After taking years of criticism for the direction, ownership, draft picks, and overall quality of the Cardinals football team they can finally face their critics and say, “So what?”
The experts are not always right and sometimes a random event causes a spark and a whole new world is created.
Congratulations to the Arizona Cardinals for proving that Arizona has got what it takes to be competitive.
