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Arizona Cardinals
Current season
Arizona Cardinals logo
Arizona Cardinals logo
Arizona Cardinals wordmark
Arizona Cardinals wordmark
LogoWordmark
Established 1898; 126 years ago (1898)
Play in University of Phoenix Stadium
Glendale, Arizona
Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona
League / conference affiliations
National Football League (1920–present)
Uniforms
Team colorsCardinal Red, White, Black[1][2]
     
MascotBig Red
Personnel
Owner(s)Bill Bidwill
ChairmanBill Bidwill
General managerSteve Keim
PresidentMichael Bidwill
Head coachBruce Arians
Team history
Since 1920:[3]
Team nicknames
  • The Cards, Big Red, Red Sea, The Cardiac Cards, Bird Gang
Championships
League championships (2)
Conference championships (1)
Division championships (7)
Playoff appearances (10)
Home fields
Since 1920:

In Chicago

In Minneapolis, Minnesota

In St. Louis

Former name(s):
Civic Center Busch Memorial Stadium (1966–1981)
Busch Stadium (1982–1987)

In Tempe, Arizona

In Glendale, Arizona

The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football franchise based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Cardinals were founded as the Morgan Athletic Club in 1898, and are the oldest continuously run professional football team in the United States.[4] The Cardinals play their home games at the University of Phoenix Stadium, which is located in the northwestern suburb of Glendale, Arizona.

The team was established in Chicago in 1898 and was a charter member of the NFL in 1920. Along with the Chicago Bears, the club is one of two NFL charter member franchises still in operation since the league's founding. (The Green Bay Packers were an independent team until they joined the NFL in 1921). The club then moved to St. Louis in 1960 and played in that city through 1987 (sometimes referred to as the "Football Cardinals" or the "Big Red" to avoid confusion with the Major League Baseball St. Louis Cardinals). Before the 1988 season, the team moved west to Tempe, Arizona, a college suburb east of Phoenix, and played their home games for the next 18 seasons at Arizona State University's Sun Devil Stadium. In 2006, the club began playing all home games at the newly constructed University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, although the team's training facility is in Tempe.

The franchise has won two NFL championships, both while it was based in Chicago. The first occurred in 1925, but is the subject of controversy, with supporters of the Pottsville Maroons believing that Pottsville should have won the title. Their second title, and the first to be won in a championship game, came in 1947, nearly two decades before the first Super Bowl. They returned to the title game to defend in 1948, but lost the rematch 7–0 in a snowstorm in Philadelphia.

Since winning the championship in 1947, the team suffered many losing seasons, and currently holds the longest active championship drought of North American sports at 68 consecutive seasons. In 2012 the Cardinals became the first NFL franchise to lose 700 games since its inception. The franchise's all-time win-loss record (including regular season and playoff games) at the conclusion of the 2015 season is 542–733–39 (535–724–39 in the regular season, 7–9 in the playoffs).[5] They have been to the playoffs ten times and have won seven playoff games, three of which were victories during their run in the 2008–09 NFL playoffs. During that season, they won their only NFC Championship Game since the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, and reached Super Bowl XLIII. The team has also won five division titles (1974, 1975, 2008, 2009 and 2015) since their 1947–1948 NFL championship game appearances. The Cardinals are the only NFL team who have never lost a playoff game at home, with a 5-0 record: the 1947 NFL Championship Game, two postseason victories during the aforementioned 2008–09 NFL playoffs, one during the 2009-10 playoffs, and one during the 2015–16 playoffs.

From 1988 through 2012 (except 2005, when they trained in Prescott), the Cardinals conducted their annual summer training camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The Cardinals moved their training camp to University of Phoenix Stadium in 2013. The stadium was the site of the 2015 Pro Bowl, unlike in past years, where it was held at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii. The stadium also played host to Super Bowls XLII and XLIX.

Franchise history

Main article: History of the Arizona Cardinals

Chicago

Main article: History of the Chicago Cardinals

The franchise's inception dates back to 1898, when a neighborhood group gathered to play in the Chicago South Side, calling themselves Morgan Athletic Club. Chicago painting and building contractor Chris O'Brien acquired the team, which he relocated to Normal Field on Racine Avenue. The team was known as Racine Normals until 1901, when O'Brien bought used jerseys from the University of Chicago. He described the faded maroon clothing as "Cardinal red" and the team became the Racine Street Cardinals. The team eventually became in 1920 a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which two years later was rechristened to National Football League (NFL). The team entered the league as the Racine Cardinals, however the name was changed in 1922 to Chicago Cardinals to avoid confusion with the Horlick-Racine Legion who entered the league the same year.[6] Except for 1925, when they were awarded the championship after the Pottsville Maroons were suspended, the Cardinals experienced only minimal success on the playing field during their first 26 seasons in the league. During the post-World War II years, the team reached two straight NFL finals against the Philadelphia Eagles, winning in 1947 – eight months after the death of owner Charles Bidwill – and losing the 1948 NFL Championship Game the following year. After years of bad seasons and losing fans to the cross-town rivals Chicago Bears, by the late 1950s the Cardinals were almost bankrupt, and owner Violet Bidwill Wolfner became interested in a relocation.

St. Louis

Main article: History of the St. Louis Cardinals (NFL)

Due to the formation of the rival American Football League, the NFL allowed Bidwill to relocate the team to St. Louis, Missouri, where they became the St. Louis Cardinals (locally, they were called the "Big Red" or the "Football Cardinals" in order to avoid confusion with the baseball team).[7] During the Cardinals' 28-year stay in St. Louis, they advanced to the playoffs just three times (1974, 1975 & 1982), never hosting or winning in any appearance. The overall mediocrity of the Cardinals, combined with a then-21-year-old stadium, caused game attendance to dwindle, and owner Bill Bidwill decided to move the team to Arizona.

Phoenix, Arizona

Not long after the 1987 NFL season, Bidwill agreed to move to the Phoenix metropolitan area on a handshake deal with state and local officials, and the team became the Phoenix Cardinals.[8] The franchise changed its geographic name from Phoenix to Arizona on March 17, 1994.[9] The 1998 NFL season made the Cardinals break two long droughts, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time in 16 years, and by winning the Wild Card Playoffs, getting their first postseason win since 1947. Ten years later, the Cardinals won the NFC Championship Game to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history. They lost Super Bowl XLIII 27-23 to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the final seconds.[10] The Arizona Cardinals now have the longest championship drought in all of sports.

Uniforms

Phoenix Cardinals uniform: 1989–1995
Arizona Cardinals uniform: 1996–2004
Chicago Cardinals logo.

Starting in 1947, the team had a logo of a cardinal bird perched on the stitches of a football.

The Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988, and the flag of Arizona was added to the sleeves the following year. In 1990, the team began wearing red pants with their white jerseys, as new coach Joe Bugel wanted to emulate his former employer, the Washington Redskins, who at the time wore burgundy pants with their white jerseys (the Redskins later returned to their 1970s gold pants with all their jerseys).

In 1994, the Cardinals participated in the NFL's 75th anniversary throwback uniform program. The jerseys were similar to those of the 1920s Chicago Cardinals, with an interlocking "CC" logo and three stripes on each sleeve. The uniform numbers were relocated to the right chest. The pants were khaki to simulate the color and material used in that era. The Cardinals also stripped the logos from their helmets for the two games, at Cleveland (Sept. 18) and home vs. Pittsburgh (Oct. 30).

The Cardinal head on the helmet was repeated on the white jersey from 1982 to 1995. In 1996, the state flag of Arizona was moved higher on the sleeve after the Cardinal head was eliminated, and black was removed as an accent color, instead replaced with a blue to match the predominant color of the state flag. In 2002, the Cardinals began to wear all-red and all-white combinations, and continued to do so through 2004, prior to the team's makeover.

In 2005, the team unveiled its first major changes in a century. The cardinal-head logo was updated to look sleeker and meaner than its predecessor. Numerous fans had derisively called the previous version a "parakeet".[11] Black again became an accent color after an eight-year absence, while trim lines were added to the outside shoulders, sleeves, and sides of the jerseys and pants. Both the red and white jerseys have the option of red or white pants.[1]

Hoping to break a six-game losing streak, the Cardinals wore the red pants for the first time on October 29, 2006, in a game at Lambeau Field against the Green Bay Packers. The Packers won 31–14, and the Cards headed into their bye week with a 1–7 mark. Following the bye week, the Cardinals came out in an all-red combination at home against the Dallas Cowboys and lost, 27–10. Arizona did not wear the red pants for the remainder of the season and won four of their last seven games. However, the following season, in 2007, the Cardinals again wore their red pants for their final 3 home games. They wore red pants with white jerseys in games on the road at the Cincinnati Bengals and Seattle Seahawks. They paired red pants with red jerseys, the all-red combination, for home games against the Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, and St. Louis Rams. The red pants were not worn at all in 2008, but they were used in home games vs. Seattle, Minnesota, and St. Louis in 2009. The red pants were paired with the white road jersey for the first time in three years during a 2010 game at Carolina, but the white jersey/red pants combination has not been used since.

The Cardinals' first home game in Arizona, in 1988, saw them play in red jerseys. Thereafter, for the next 18 years in Arizona, the Cardinals, like a few other NFL teams in warm climates, wore their white jerseys at home during the first half of the season—forcing opponents to suffer in their darker jerseys during Arizona autumns that frequently see temperatures over 100 °F (38 °C). However, this tradition did not continue when the Cardinals moved from Sun Devil Stadium to University of Phoenix Stadium in 2006, as early-season games (and some home games late in the season) were played with the roof closed. With the temperature inside at a comfortable 70 °F (21 °C), the team opted to wear red jerseys at home full-time. The Cardinals wore white jerseys at home for the first time in University of Phoenix Stadium on August 29, 2008, in a preseason game against the Denver Broncos.

The Cardinals wore white at home for the first time in a regular season game at University of Phoenix Stadium against the Houston Texans on October 11, 2009. In October 2009, the NFL recognized Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and players wore pink-accented items, including gloves, wristbands, and shoes. The team thought the pink accents looked better with white uniforms than with red.[12]

From 1970 through 1983, and again in many seasons between 1989 and 2002, the Cardinals would wear white when hosting the Dallas Cowboys in order to force the Cowboys to don their "jinxed"[clarification needed] blue jerseys. They have not done this since moving into University of Phoenix Stadium, however.[citation needed]

The 2010 season saw the Cardinals debut a new, alternate black jersey.[13] Prior to its introduction, the Cardinals were the only NFL team without an alternate jersey or throwback kit, save for the NFL's 75th anniversary program in 1994.[14]

Season-by-season records

Main article: List of Arizona Cardinals seasons

Single-season records

Points Scored: 489 (2015)

Passing

Rushing

Receiving

Returns

Kicking

Cardinals career records

Players

Current roster

Arizona Cardinals roster
Quarterbacks (QB)

Running backs (RB)

Wide receivers (WR)

Tight ends (TE)

Offensive linemen (OL)

Defensive linemen (DL)

Linebackers (LB)

Defensive backs (DB)

Special teams

Practice squad

Reserve


As of November 6, 2024. Rookies in italics.

53 active, 9 reserve, 16 practice squad (+3 exempt)

Retired numbers

Arizona Cardinals retired numbers
N° Player Position Tenure Team based in
8 Larry Wilson S 1960–1972 St. Louis
40 Pat Tillman 1 S 1998–2001 Arizona
77 Stan Mauldin 1 OT 1946–1948 Chicago
88 J. V. Cain 1 TE 1974–1978 St. Louis
99 Marshall Goldberg HB 1939–1943, 1946–1948 Chicago

Notes:

  • 1 Posthumously retired.

Pro Football Hall of Famers

Arizona Cardinals Hall of Famers[15]
Chicago Cardinals
No. Player Position(s) Seasons with the Cardinals Inducted
1 John "Paddy" Driscoll QB
Coach		 1920–1925
1920–1922		 1965
2 Walt Kiesling G / DT
Coach		 1929–1933
1944		 1966
4 Ernie Nevers FB
Coach		 1929–1931
1930–1931, 1939		 1963
13 Guy Chamberlin End & Coach 1927–1928 1965
33 Ollie Matson RB 1952, 1954–1958 1972
62, 2 Charley Trippi RB 1947–1955 1968
81 Dick "Night Train" Lane CB 1954–1959 1974
Jim Thorpe RB 1928 1963
– Charles Bidwill Team Owner 1933–1947 1967
– Jimmy Conzelman Coach 1940–1942
1946–1948		 1964
– Earl "Curly" Lambeau Coach 1950–1951 1963
– Joe Stydahar Coach 1953–1954 1967
St. Louis Cardinals
8 Larry Wilson S 1960–1972 1978
13 Don Maynard WR 1973 1987
22 Roger Wehrli CB 1969–1982 2007
72 Dan Dierdorf T 1971–1983 1996
81 Jackie Smith TE 1963–1977 1994
Arizona Cardinals
22 Emmitt Smith RB 2003–2004 2010
35 Aeneas Williams CB 1991–2000 2014

italics = played a portion of career with the Cardinals and enshrined representing another team
Dierdorf, Smith, Wehrli and Wilson were members of the St. Louis Football Ring of Fame in The Dome at America's Center when the Rams played there from 1995 to 2015.

Arizona Sports Hall of Fame

Main article: Arizona Sports Hall of Fame

Ring of Honor

See also: St. Louis Football Ring of Fame and Ring of Honor (disambiguation)
File:Tillman - portrait.JPG
Pat Tillman's portrait – Faces of the Fallen gallery – Arlington National Cemetery.

The Cardinals' Ring of Honor was started in 2006 to mark the opening of University of Phoenix Stadium. It honors former Cardinal greats from all eras of the franchise's history. Following is a list of inductees and the dates that they were inducted.

First-round draft picks

Further information: List of Arizona Cardinals first-round draft picks

Current staff

Arizona Cardinals staff
Front office
  • Owner/chairman/president – Michael Bidwill
  • General manager – Monti Ossenfort
  • Assistant general manager – Dave Sears
  • Vice president of football operations & facilities – Matt Caracciolo
  • Director of pro personnel – Glen Fox
  • Assistant director of player personnel – Rob Kisiel
  • Assistant director of college scouting – Ryan Gold
  • Director of football administration – Matt Harriss
Head coach
Offensive coaches
  
Defensive coaches
Special teams coaches
  • Assistant special teams – Sam Sewell
Support staff
  • Assistant to the head coach – Brandon Schwab
  • Director, football strategy – Kenny Bell
  • Director, football performance – Shea Thompson
  • Coaching assistant – Jay Razzano
Strength and conditioning
  • Strength and conditioning – Buddy Morris
  • Assistant strength and conditioning – Mark Naylor

→ Coaching staff
→ Front office
→ More NFL staffs

Radio and television

The Cardinals' flagship radio station was KMVP AM, "ESPN Radio 860." KMVP assumed the broadcast rights in 2006 after many years on KSLX-FM and KDUS. Dave Pasch, Ron Wolfley, and Paul Calvisi handle the radio broadcast. Most preseason games are televised on KNXV, channel 15, the local ABC affiliate. For regular season games, it can be aired on the Fox O&O affiliate KSAZ-TV, CBS affiliate KPHO-TV when they host an AFC Team, and KPNX, the local NBC station for Sunday Night Football.

On New Year's Day 2007, KMVP began a simulcast of KTAR, which switched to an all-sports format (the news/talk station became 92.3, KTAR-FM). For the 2007 season, KTAR was the official flagship station; however, some broadcasts were also heard on 92.3 FM because of conflicts with Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games on 620 AM.

In January 2014, Bonneville International, owners of KTAR and KMVP, created Arizona Sports 98.7 (KMVP-FM), a new local FM sports talk outlet. All Cardinals games in 2014 and beyond have been heard on KMVP-FM.

Spanish-language radio broadcasts are heard on the combo of KQMR/KHOV-FM "Latino Mix" under a contract with Univisión, signed in 2015.[16] Prior to 2015, they were heard on KDVA/KVVA-FM "José FM", as well as co-owned KBMB AM 710. The Cardinals were the first NFL team to offer all 20 preseason and regular season games on Spanish-language radio, doing so in 2000. Gabriel Trujillo and Rolando Cantú are the Spanish broadcast team.

The Cardinals have the most extensive Mexican affiliate network in the NFL, with contracts with Grupo Larsa (in the state of Sonora) and Grupo Radiorama (outside Sonora) and stations in 20 cities, including Hermosillo, Guadalajara and Mexico City.

English radio affiliates

Cardinals Radio Affiliates

class=notpageimage|
Map of radio affiliates
City Call Sign Frequency
Phoenix, Arizona KTAR AM 620 AM
Phoenix, Arizona KMVP-FM 98.7 FM
Safford, Arizona KATO AM 1230 AM
Sedona, Arizona KAZM AM 780 AM
Lake Havasu City, Arizona KNTR AM 980 AM
Prescott, Arizona KQNA AM 1130 AM
Prescott, Arizona KDDL FM 94.3 FM
Flagstaff, Arizona KVNA AM 600 AM
Holbrook, Arizona KZUA-FM 92.1 FM
Yuma, Arizona KBLU 560 AM
Pinetop, Arizona KNKI FM 106.7 FM
Miami, Arizona KIKO AM 1340 AM
Tucson, Arizona KEVT AM 1210 AM
Kingman, Arizona KGMN-FM 100.1 FM

Miscellaneous

Due to Phoenix's high temperature and strong sunshine in early September, eight of the team's first 13 home openers in Arizona were held, at earliest, in week three. In 1989, 1990 and 1991, the Cardinals opened with three consecutive road games before finally coming home in week four. For the same reason, the team's home opener was a nationally televised night game (two Monday Night Football games and 11 Sunday Night Football (ESPN) games) from 1988 to 2001. The team hosted nine straight home openers as Sunday Night Football games from 1990 to 1998.

In 2001, the NFL schedule and the September 11 attacks allowed the Cardinals to play their first two games at home. Since the NFL had an odd number of teams (31) from 1999 through 2001, there had to be at least one bye in every week of the season. In 2001, the Cardinals' bye was week one. They were scheduled to travel to Washington in week two, but the game was postponed due to the terrorist attacks and moved to the very end of the slate. The Cardinals' scheduled home opener, a Sunday Night Football game vs. Denver, became the season opener, the only time Arizona played its season opener at home when it resided at Sun Devil Stadium. Arizona also played at home the next week vs. Atlanta.

Patrick Daniel "Pat" Tillman (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional career while with the Arizona Cardinals and enlisted in the United States Army in June 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. His service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and subsequent death, were the subject of much media attention.

As of November 2nd 2016 The Arizona Cardinals have the longest title drought of all of American Sports last winning a championship in 1947.

References

  1. ^ a b "Cards Unveiled New Uniforms". Arizona Cardinals. April 21, 2005. Archived from the original on April 21, 2005. Retrieved June 9, 2016. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ "Arizona Cardinals Team Capsule" (PDF). 2016 Official National Football League Record and Fact Book. National Football League. July 15, 2016. Retrieved August 4, 2016.
  3. ^ "Arizona Cardinals Team Facts". Pro Football Hall of Fame. Retrieved January 29, 2016.
  4. ^ "Franchise History". Arizona Cardinals. March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
  5. ^ "All-Time Records of Current NFL Franchises" (PDF). Pro Football Hall of Fame. March 2, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 23, 2015. Retrieved September 28, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Griffith, R.D. (2012). To the NFL: You Sure Started Somethin': A Historical Guide of All 32 NFL Teams and the Cities They've Played In. Dorrance Publishing. p. 2. ISBN 978-1434916815.
  7. ^ Wyche, Steve (June 29, 2011). "Before coming to desert, Cards were substandard in St. Louis". National Football League. Retrieved June 11, 2016. Having grown up in St. Louis, I was always resigned to the fact that the football Cardinals, regardless of where they were located, would never play in a Super Bowl.
  8. ^ Eskenazi, Gerald (March 16, 1988). "N.F.L. Approves Team Shift". The New York Times. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  9. ^ "Franchise History" (PDF). 2015 Arizona Cardinals Media Guide. Arizona Cardinals. July 20, 2015. Retrieved June 11, 2016.
  10. ^ "Arizona Cardinals Team History". Pro Football Hall of Fame. August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  11. ^ "Cards Brush Up Bird". Arizona Cardinals. January 27, 2005. Archived from the original on November 22, 2005. Retrieved August 26, 2015. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Somers, Kent (October 29, 2009). "Is white out for the Big Red?". The Arizona Republic. Retrieved June 11, 2016. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ Urban, Darren (April 22, 2010). "Cards Unveil Third Jerseys". Arizona Cardinals. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  14. ^ Lukas, Paul (February 22, 2010). "There's No Service Like Wire Service, Vol. 6". ESPN. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
  15. ^ "Hall of Famers by Franchise". Pro Football Hall of Fame. August 26, 2015. Retrieved August 26, 2015.
  16. ^ Media Moves, "Univision Arizona radio signs deal with Arizona Cardinals", Media Moves 28 August 2015

Further reading

  • Ziemba, Joe (2010). When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL. Chicago: Triumph Books ISBN 1-57243-317-5
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