Arizona Cardinals – History, Uniforms, Rivalries, Staff, Players, and More

Arizona Cardinals – History, Uniforms, Rivalries, Staff, Players, and More

Arizona Cardinals – History, Uniforms, Rivalries, Staff, Players, and More: The Arizona Cardinals are a professional football team from the area around Phoenix. The Cardinals are part of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division in the National Football League (NFL). They play their home games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, a suburb in the northwest of the city.

Team Journey

The Beginning

The team’s name in 1898 was the Morgan Athletic Club. It was an amateur football team from Chicago. On September 17, 1920, it joined the NFL as one of the first teams. The Cardinals have been a professional football team in the United States longer than any other team. They are also one of only two NFL charter teams that are still in business. The other is the Chicago Bears (the Green Bay Packers were an independent team until they joined the NFL a year after its creation in 1921).

The Movement

In 1960, the team moved to St. Louis, where it played until 1987. The St. Louis team was often called the “Football Cardinals,” the “Gridbirds,” or the “Big Red” to avoid confusion with the baseball team of the same name in Major League Baseball (MLB). The team relocated to Tempe, Arizona, a college town east of Phoenix, before the 1988 season. For the next 18 seasons, they played all of their home games at Sun Devil Stadium, which is on the campus of Arizona State University. In 2006, the team moved to Glendale, which is now their home field. However, their executive offices and training facility are still in Tempe. From 1988 to 2012, the Cardinals held their summer training camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. In 2005, they trained in Prescott instead. In 2013, the Cardinals moved their training camp to what was then called State Farm Stadium.

The Wins

The Cardinals have won two NFL championships. Both times, the team was based in Chicago. The first one happened in 1925, but it’s unclear who could have won. Fans of the Pottsville Maroons think that their team should have won. Their second came in 1947, which was almost 20 years before the first Super Bowl. It was the first time they had won a championship game. They went back to the championship game in 1948 to defend their title but lost 7–0 in a snowstorm in Philadelphia.

More of the Championships

Since 1947, when they won the championship, the team has had many losing seasons. They have gone 75 seasons without winning a championship, which is the longest active championship drought in North American sports. In 2012, the Cardinals became the first NFL team to lose 700 games since it started. At the end of the 2021 season, the team will have 584 wins, 787 losses, and 41 ties for a total record of 584-787-41. (577–777–41-regular season, 7–10 in the playoffs). They’ve been to the playoffs eleven times and won seven games, including three during their run in the NFL playoffs in 2008–09. During that season, they won the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the AFL and NFL merged in 1970. In 2009, they went to Super Bowl XLIII but lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 27–23. Since 1947–48, when the team played in the NFL championship game, it has also won five division titles (1974, 1975, 2008, 2009, and 2015). In addition, the Cardinals are the only NFL team that has never lost a playoff game at home. They have a perfect record of 5–0, with wins in the 1947 NFL Championship Game, two playoff games in 2008–09, one playoff game in 2009–10, and one playoff game in 2015–16.

Logos and uniforms

From 1947 on, the team’s logo was a cardinal sitting on the laces of a football. Then, in 1988, the Cardinals moved to Arizona, and the following year, the Arizona flag was added to the sleeves. Then, in 1990, the team started wearing red pants with their white jerseys. This was because the new coach, Joe Bugel, wanted to be like his old team, the Washington Redskins, who wore burgundy pants with their white jerseys at the time.

On October 11, 2009, when they played the Houston Texans in a regular-season game at State Farm Stadium, it was the first time the Cardinals wore white at home. In October 2009, the NFL raised awareness about breast cancer by having players wear gloves, wristbands, and shoes with pink accents. The team thought the pink accents looked better with the white uniforms than the red ones.

During the 2010 season, the Cardinals wore a new black alternate jersey for the first time. In 2017, the Cardinals were the first team to wear an NFL Color Rush set that was all black. The Cardinals’ Color Rush alternates were black with red lettering and black pants. The regular black substitutes have white lettering and white pants. Starting in 2022, black uniforms would be worn with a black helmet different from the other.

Rivalries

• Seattle Seahawks
• Los Angeles Rams
• Chicago Bears

Retired numbers

Chicago / St. Louis / Arizona Cardinals retired numbers [6][33]
N	Player	Position	Tenure	Retired
8	Larry Wilson	S	1960–1972	1970
40	Pat Tillman	S	1998–2001	19 Sep 2004
77	Stan Mauldin	OT	1946–1948	–
88	J. V. Cain	TE	1974–1978	1979
99	Marshall Goldberg	HB	1939–1943; 1946–1948	1948–2021

Pro Football Hall of Fame

Chicago / St. Louis / Arizona Cardinals in the Pro Football Hall of Fame
Players
No.	Player	Position(s)	Tenure	Inducted
4	Ernie Nevers	FBCoach	1929–19311930–1931, 1939	1963
—	Jim Thorpe	RB	1928	1963
13	Guy Chamberlin	End & Coach	1927–1928	1965
1	John “Paddy” Driscoll	QBCoach	1920–19251920–1922	1965
2	Walt Kiesling	G / DTCoach	1929–19331944	1966
62, 2	Charley Trippi	RB	1947–1955	1968
33	Ollie Matson	RB	1952, 1954–1958	1972
81	Dick “Night Train” Lane	CB	1954–1959	1974
8	Larry Wilson	S	1960–1972	1978
13	Don Maynard	WR	1973	1987
81	Jackie Smith	TE	1963–1977	1994
72	Dan Dierdorf	T	1971–1983	1996
22	Roger Wehrli	CB	1969–1982	2007
22	Emmitt Smith	RB	2003–2004	2010
35	Aeneas Williams	CB	1991–2000	2014
13	Kurt Warner^	QB	2005–2009	2017
32	Edgerrin James	RB	2006–2008	2020
16	Duke Slater	T	1926–1931	2020
66	Alan Faneca	G	2010	2021
Coaches and Contributors
Name	Position(s)	Tenure	Inducted
Earl “Curly” Lambeau	Coach	1950–1951	1963
Jimmy Conzelman	Coach	1940–19421946–1948	1964
Charles Bidwill	Team Owner	1933–1947	1967
Joe Stydahar	Coach	1953–1954	1967

The Ring of Honor

Arizona Cardinals Ring of Honor
No.	Name	Position(s)	Seasons	Inducted
—	Charles Bidwill	Owner	1933–1947	August 12, 2006
—	Jimmy Conzelman	Coach	1940–19421946–1948
1	John “Paddy” Driscoll	QBCoach	1920–19251920–1922
99	Marshall Goldberg	HB	1939–19431946–1948
81	Dick “Night Train” Lane	CB	1954–1959
33	Ollie Matson	HB	1952, 1954–1958
4	Ernie Nevers	FBCoach	1929–19311930–1931, 1939
62, 2	Charley Trippi	HB/QB	1947–1955
8	Larry Wilson	S	1960–1972	September 10, 2006
72	Dan Dierdorf	T	1971–1983	October 16, 2006
40	Pat Tillman	S	1998–2001	November 12, 2006
22	Roger Wehrli	CB	1969–1982	October 14, 2007
35	Aeneas Williams	CB	1991–2000	November 10, 2008
13	Kurt Warner	QB	2005–2009	June 18, 2014
22, 24	Adrian Wilson	S	2001–2012	September 27, 2015
25, 81	Roy Green	WR	1979–1990	October 2, 2016
7, 17	Jim Hart	QB	1966–1983	December 3, 2017
3	Carson Palmer	QB	2013–2017	September 29, 2019