Spend Super Bowl Week as an Arizona Cardinals Fan

As the offseason begins for 30 teams, how do the Arizona Cardinals’ fans spend the week leading up to what-could-have-been?

After the Arizona Cardinals won the Divisional match-up against the Green Bay Packers, all the talk was on how the match-up between the Panthers and the Cardinals was the game that everyone had been wanting to see all year, for two quality teams to prove who should really be on top of the NFC. Taking out the playoff loss to the Panthers in the end of the 2014 season, that wasn’t a clear indication of the talent level of this Cardinals team, the 2015 match-up was the creme de la creme of the playoffs.

And then the NFC Championship Game happened.

And here we are over a week later, and, you know what, I’m not really that upset. A lot of bandwagon fans and people with knee-jerk reactions pegged the Cardinals as pretenders and lucky, the same lucky team that won 10+ games in three consecutive seasons for the first time, well, ever. Luck wins you a game here or there, the 2008 Cardinals were a lucky team, going 6-0 in the division and 3-7 outside of it, but this team, this team had raw talent. But a perfect storm of injuries, cold feet, and just general fatigue kept them from attaining greatness.

While listening to the radio today on my drive home from work, one of the sports hosts mentioned how they are not as upset as they would have been, watching the spectacle that is the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl, if the Cardinals had only lost that NFC Championship Game by a field goal. I tend to agree. After the game was long over (which could have been in the first quarter), any disappointment was going to be shortlived when looking at the run-up to the Super Bowl. Why would the team’s fans further punish themselves watching the NFC representative, the team that beat them, bask in the glory that is playing on the game’s ultimate stage.

There’s a lot of things that don’t make my a Panthers fan. Cam Newton’s attitude is one of them, the arrogance on both sides of the ball, in Manning and Newton, is another. In general, while years like a New York Giants vs. Patriots match-up were intriguing because of the storylines, this year’s game has one big storyline going for it, is this the end for Peyton Manning?

So, as an Arizona Cardinals fan, as a football fan, how do you make the most of this week?

To a certain extent you look at what these two teams have done. Carolina went from 7-8-1 last season to 15-1 with, who, on offense? Ted Ginn, Jr.? Denver crept into the playoff picture with an underwhelming offense for most of the season but a smothering defense that kept them in games and won them when they had to. They’re great stories for the game itself and totems that other teams should take notes from.

The biggest thing to think about is, don’t lose sight of how great this season was for the Cardinals, and as we put to bed 2015 and start to look at 2016 with Free Agency, the Draft, OTAs, Training Camp and Kickoff Weekend. Don’t dwell on the NFC Championship Game, look back at how the Cardinals throttled the Bears, lit up the Packers, destroyed the Lions, eked out a win over the Vikings, manipulated the 49ers and goated the Bengals. This was a great season, a great collection of games, records, achievements and players. Don’t sell it short because one game left a bad taste in your mouth.