Arizona Cardinals Have A Definite Home Field Advantage
By Scott Allen
A recent foxsports.com piece came out and listed the top 11 home field advantages in the NFL
I’m sure many of you reading this piece have been to an Arizona Cardinals game. I’ll be willing to bet a lot of you have been to other sports venues in the Valley of the Sun as well. Since 2006 when the Cardinals started play in University of Phoenix, I’m certain you’ve noticed the huge change from the Sun Devil Stadium days, right?
Foxsports.com still believes that the Cardinals are not amongst the top 11 home field advantages in the NFL. Really? Really?? Of course their piece does not say who wrote it nor say how they came to the results they came to.
Sure, there is a little paragraph on each photo of the top 11 home fields indicating why people should believe that is one of the 11 best. You can’t really argue with a number of them. Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, Seattle’s Centurylink Stadium, New Orleans’s Superdome. No argument with those. I mean though, Chicago’s Soldier Field makes the list? Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field?
The Arizona Cardinals have sold out every game. Now, that doesn’t set them apart from these other places but they have sold out every game since moving to the other side of town. They only had a small handful of sellouts in the first 18 seasons at Sun Devil Stadium. That place had little life for Cardinals games.
Yes, other teams fans have taken a lot of those seats at times. No doubt. However, the place is loud and in favor of the Cardinals. For purposes of this piece by foxsports.com, it was since 2011. Since 2011, the Cardinals are 23-9 at home. They were 6-2 in 2013 and 7-1 at home in 2014. They led the NFL in false starts by an opponent, more than Seattle, more than Kansas City.
So where is the respect for the Cardinals stadium? There is a reason why the Super Bowl has been held there twice already in the first nine seasons the Cardinals have played there. More so, where is the respect for Birdgang? Oh and Philadelphia, the real Birdgang is here in Arizona son don’t even start.
I can only go off of what I’ve seen on television outside of Arizona. I’ve been to University of Phoenix Stadium plenty of times to know that place is LOUD. It has to be a huge advantage. I can’t say it is the loudest. However if it isn’t in the top 11 home-field advantages in a 32-team league, then maybe we need to re-define what home-field definition means?