All aboard!

I’m going to make a confession. I am an Arizona Cardinals football fan. I know I haven’t talked about it much and some people outside of AZ might even use the term “bandwagon.” By definition, a bandwagon is “a popular trend that attracts growing support.” Trust me, there is nothing popular about being an Arizona Cardinal fan. And it’s certainly not attractive. On the contrary, being a Cardinal fan can really bring out the ugly in people. Otherwise civilized people will scream profanities and throw tantrums. I’ve seen it…and it is ugly. A more appropriate phrase for what’s happening in Arizona is that the fans are “coming out of the woodwork.”

We moved to Arizona just before the 1997 football season so we haven’t been waiting as long as the Arizona fans that have been cheering for them since they arrived in 1988. Nor as long as, believe it or not, the fans that still linger from when they were in St. Louis. But we’ve been cheering for the consummate underdog for twelve seasons of football. There were times they made it so hard…you wanted to walk away. But just about every off-season brought some new glimmer of hope. There was second-round draft pick, local ASU hero, Jake Plummer. In his second season, Jake carried the Cardiac Cards to that historic moment in team history…when we beat the Dallas Cowboys in the Wild Card game. Of course that was followed by more seasons of disappointment. The promising first round draft picks that didn’t pan out. Another glimmer when Dennis Green arrived in 2004…bringing along Edgerrin James a couple seasons later. Yet the letdown continued.

Cardinal fans have become so accustomed to disappointment that instead we would hope to not be humiliated on national television. Does anyone remember the Monday Night Football game between the Bears and Cardinals. It is best if you forget.

Yet we’ve remained loyal and ridden the rollercoaster of emotions. And this year it has finally paid off. We are the NFC West Champions. For three weeks we’ve listened to the naysayers. They’ve said that we are the worst team to ever be in the playoffs. We are in the worst league and didn’t deserve to be there. But here we are…one game away from the Super Bowl and this city is covered in Cardinal red. It is the middle of January and we’re still in the game. We haven’t had to settle for which other team to follow through the play-offs. For that I am thrilled for the team and the faithful fans. And if your team is out of the playoffs and you’re debating who to root for…go ahead jump on our bandwagon. We’ve got plenty of room.