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It’s Cards vs. Steelers in the Super Bowl

by Joe Pietaro

Anyone with a relative from the old Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago must be proud of what occurred on Sunday many miles away in the desert. Back in 1898, that was also the name of a football team that eventually found a home in Arizona and is on their way to represent their conference in Super Bowl XLIII.

Some may say that the Cardinals are not the ’sexy’ team and the league would have been better off if the Eagles were able to win the NFC championship. Tell that to the people who have been following this team for years, such as Will Leitch (writer, The Sporting News, Deadspin, The New Yorker). An admitted Cards fan in good times and (mostly) bad, the 32-25 victory over Philadelphia was for guys like him and, more so, people who were around when the then-Chicago Cardinals last won an NFL Championship in 1947.

Over the years, the franchise - regardless of where they called home - has only made the playoffs (which began in 1932) seven times, including this season. Twice in Chicago, three times in St. Louis and twice again in Arizona, where they moved to in 1988 and were known for six seasons as the Phoenix Cardinals.

201 games under .500 all-time during the regular season, the Cardinals haven’t exactly played in many big games since the Nuremburg trials. But they have prevailed in three postseason contests this month alone. There is no telling if they will win on February 1 versus the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers in Tampa Bay, but it is certainly a ‘feel good’ story and one that should see this thing out.

For former players like Dick “Night Train” Lane, Dan Dierdorf, and the great American hero Pat Tillman, and fans like Leitch and all the others, it would be a fitting end to this story if the Cardinals can win it all.

The population of three cities and over one hundred years of football history will be on the line.

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