After enduring two weeks of watching my two favorite teams play each other, I can finally get behind the Cardinals 100%. I grew up in Wisconsin and am still a die-hard Packers fan. Still, when you watch the local team week in and week out, hear about them on the news, see all the other people wearing the colors, it’s very hard not to root for them. In this case, it’s the Cardinals.
When I first moved to the valley, it was very easy to root against the Cardinals. To be blunt, they sucked. And they didn’t just start being bad when I moved here, they were bad since the 1970s.
Over the past few years, since the new stadium was built, really, they’ve been getting better and better. When they started Kurt Warner last year, it was the beginning of something special. Almost winning the Superbowl last year was one heck of a ride for a city who never really had a football team to root for.
The first two times Green Bay played Arizona this year, the games were utterly meaningless. One was pre-season, one was game 16 after the Cardinals had nothing to play for. Today’s game was a barnburner. Wow. 96 total points in a 51-45 overtime victory for the Cards on a defensive touchdown. Holy smokes!
It should have been 48-45 in regulation but for Rackers’ muffed field goal. A guy who I had been following for two years as one of the best kickers in the NFL, and one of the few kickers whose jersey I would have been willing to wear, almost lost the game for them. When the Packers won the overtime toss, Rackers took his frustration out on the ball, kicking a line-drive touchback.
New Orleans has a high-octane offense too. We might just see another one next week in the Superdome.
I would have been okay with Green Bay winning, though I prefer to see Kurt Warner finish his career with another Superbowl. Aaron Rogers will get his ring. Just not this year.
And I’m still looking for an Aaron Rogers Jersey if anybody knows where any are in the valley. Even if I won’t be wearing it until Arizona is done.
