The Day After: Everything Status Quo for the Arizona Cardinals
By Scott Allen
Waking up this morning many of us, including myself, thought we would awaken to a world of changes in the land of the Arizona Cardinals. We all thought wrong. Nothing has changed. Well, not much has changed, except now Cardinals players aren’t exactly denying things are wrong with coach Ken Whisenhunt at the helm.
When asked if he still had confidence in coach Whiz, Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett said “no comment”. Now, let’s remember he was just fined a reported $200,000 and played a limited role in yesterday’s 58-0 blowout loss to the Seattle Seahawks. He was fined thanks to his spit into the face of safety Kerry Rhodes during last week’s loss to the New York Jets. He spit because he was frustrated he was told to let the Jets score.
Then today, safety Adrian Wilson, who has spent his entire 12-year career in Arizona, said he probably won’t be returning to the Cards next season. When asked if coach Whiz had lost the locker room, he said “you have to ask coach Whisenhunt”. A very telling comment. He didn’t deny the locker room was lost, that’s for sure. He also said the team is not competing at an NFL level. That much we can all see, however it is nice it is coming out of a player’s mouth. They must recognize.
Apologies to fans or not, coach Whiz is still the head coach. Some people said it’s not worth removing him now and should wait until the end of the season. Some have complained Whiz isn’t the issue. General manager Rod Graves is. Well, I think they are both part of the problem. There is never a good time to fire a head coach who led you to a Super Bowl just four years ago. Let me tell you something, it needs to be done and the only reason it hasn’t is because the Cards are cheap. They are on the hook for a lot of money to just let him go. This also tells me they care more about money than the state of the football team. What else is new though?
Hey, the Baltimore Ravens fired their offensive coordinator today. This is a team that is currently in the playoffs if it ends today. You want to argue about bad timing? That might be it. It is amazing the Cards still hold onto their offensive coordinator in Mike Miller today and now Cam Cameron is out of a job in Baltimore. Wow.
There are a lot of people to blame and no, it is deeper than coach Whiz, however, he’s lost this team, players are saying whatever they want. ‘No comment” answers today speak volumes, maybe more than anything else that could be said. The Cards have met rock bottom and seem content with staying there for quite awhile.