Arizona Cardinals have a military history that not many remember
Arizona Cardinals- WWII continued
Pick Analysis. RB/CB. Chet Wetterlund. player. Scouting Report. Illinois Wesleyan. 40. 32
Chet Wetterlund was a 9th-round pick of the Cardinals in the 1942 draft. Wetterlund would be cut before the regular season started and spent his only year in the NFL with the Detroit Lions.
Wetterlund was enlisted in the Army and performing a training flight off the coast of New Jersey when suddenly, his plane had mechanical issues, forcing him to bail out of the plane. Wetterlund was killed instantly, and his body was never found.
32. Scouting Report. MarshallGoldberg. 99. player. Pick Analysis. RB. Pittsburgh
Marshall Goldberg played for the Cardinals from 1939 to 1943 and then again from 1946 to1948. His three-year stint in the Army was one of the reasons his number is retired. He was also part of the 1947 NFL Championship team, the last such team the Cardinals have ever had.
When J.J. Watt signed with the Cardinals, Watt called Goldberg’s daughter and asked for permission to wear her father’s number. She obliged, and the rest is history- the first time most Cardinals fans have seen a 99 on the field in several decades.