Cardinals Hardly A Fluke
By Scott Allen
Finally. This is the type of nut I’ve been looking for. It was bound to happen. First, as the playoffs began, we had the Arizona Cardinals being called the worst playoff team ever. Then they beat Atlanta. Then that was called a fluke and given no chance against Carolina on the road. Now there were believers. Then came the NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles. They won and made it to the Super Bowl and we’ve started back at square one with someone.
Charles P. Pierce, a staff writer for Boston Globe Magazine says in a piece written for slate.com that the Cardinals presence in the Super Bowl is both “fluky” and “disgraceful”.
What? When I first picked up today’s USA Today and read that he had written that, I thought it had to be a mis-print. Sure enough, I made it to his story on the internet site and there it was. He said that the Arizona Cardinals presence in the Super Bowl is at best a fluke and at worst a disgrace. I think there may be some who have crossed paths with this guy in his life who might say the same thing about him.
I don’t want to get into name calling and say this guy is a jerk or anything like that. That’s not my nature and he is entitled to his opinion just as I am, no matter how skewed and idiotic his thoughts may be.
He argues that because the Cardinals played in a bad division and because Jake Delhomme couldn’t throw to his own players, instead giving five interceptions to the Cardinals, the Cardinals should not be here. Look, first of all, you can’t fault the Cardinals for being in a division that had a down year. To be honest, all three of the other teams within that division have all seen glory days within this decade. So, please don’t tell me this is a fluke.
As far as Jake Delhomme of the Carolina Panthers goes, what he is saying if a quarterback has a bad day or plays a bad game, that automatically means no credit given to the defense, then this league wouldn’t be around for very long. Talk about selling a good defense short.
He also calls the Cardinals a “glorified Arena Football League team with a soft defense and a running game unworthy of the name”. He obviously has not watched a single minute of these playoffs. Sure the Cardinals didn’t have much of a running game in the regular season, however, the Cardinals have shown a balanced attack when it matters most – in the playoffs. The Cardinals only job as a franchise is to get into the playoffs. Once you are there, anything that took place in the regular season is quite meaningless. Those 16 games played mean nothing at that point. Apparently Mr. Pierce thinks it does mean something.
He is even crazy enough to propose that the NFL rigged it so that the Cardinals would represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Oh really? If the NFL rigged this, which of course we all know is a ridiculous proposition, don’t you think they would have done that last season when the game was here in Arizona? What a story the NFL would have had on their hands for that one. The first team to play the Super Bowl in its home stadium against the team that was shooting for NFL supremacy in going 19-0 after a 16-0 regular season. There would have been no better story than that. So to even insinuate that the the NFL rigged this is ridiculous.
He said a Cards win against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday would just be more of the nonsense going on. Fine. You know what? Don’t watch. Again, he is entitled to his opinion, but let’s be honest, this piece obviously was not his attempt at humor, although you have to treat it as such. This was his way of trying to get his point across that the Cardinals don’t belong here. They don’t deserve the chance to be here. You can read between the lines in his story. He is a Boston Globe Magazine writer who was jaded that his New England Patriots wiped the field with the Cardinals back in December and now the Patriots are the ones sitting at home after finishing 11-5. Get over it. That’s the way the NFL works…and that my friend, is no fluke.
Go Cardinals!!
Scott Allen