- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,232,499
- Reaction score
- 59
It was a lovely afternoon during which the crowd watched in semi-stunned fashion as their Arizona Cardinals keeled over and handed Cam Ward his first win in the NFL and the Tennessee Titans their first win of the season, Oct. 5, 2025.
For a Texan, who, for the record, has followed the Dallas Cowboys my whole life, this game sums up the Cardinals’ experience, and I have some analysis to share. I understand the sentiment: "Who cares what a Cowboys fan thinks?!" But Cardinals fans don't have to keep reading.
That day, Cardinals fans saw a 15-point lead evaporate before their eyes at around the 13-minute mark in the fourth quarter. It began right around the time Cardinals running back Emari Demercado took a would-be 70+ yard score to the house, only to let up before crossing the goal line and have the ball knocked out of his hands by Titans cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
The ball was shot out to the back of the end zone for a touchback and the Cards crumbled to a rookie quarterback and a team that eventually won three games, one fewer than Arizona.
Cardinals fans sank into their seats, in a near-emotionless daze, another low point among decades of disappointment they have endured.
It feels like the continuation of a tired trek of tribulation that has spanned seemingly the entire time the team has been in Arizona.
Fans huffing at game-ending field goals, and the understanding that this winning thing simply isn’t for them.
Despite all the frustration, the Cardinals are popular not just in the US, but also in Mexico.
According to a 2024 study done by gambling site CSGOLuck, the Cardinals have the second-most out-of-state fans, based on users typing Google keywords related to an NFL team outside of their home state over the past 12 months.
Their average monthly searches for the Cardinals outside of Arizona totaled 15,993. With the Cardinals' old stomping grounds of Missouri and Illinois coming up second and third, respectively, on that list.
A separate 2025 study done by Vivid Seats revealed that Cardinals strongholds exist in New Mexico and Utah, with a couple of counties as far north as Alaska, in Yukon-Koyukuk, and North Slope.
At the same time Arizona Cardinals fandom has expanded in Mexico significantly, thanks largely to former Cardinals player Rolando Cantu.
The "Thursday Night Football en Español" analyst and a manager of the Cardinals' international business ventures, Cantu, a Mexican native from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, has helped syndicate "Cardenales Spanish" radio affiliates in México.
From the Pacific to Nogales down south to Guadalajara, Cardinals radio coverage has been available in at least 21 cities since 2021.
Cardinals fans have gone international.
The short answer is yes, of course there’s hope, in the sense that there is always hope, in the sense that destruction brings creation, and Jonathan Gannon’s regime has been demolished to make way for first-year Arizona coach Mike LaFleur.
LaFleur is a 39-year-old perceived NFL wonder-kid in the vein of his old head coach Sean McVay -- and his older brother, Matt LaFleur, up in Green Bay.
However, the long answer is something Cardinals fans seemed prepared for. The long answer is more nuanced, complicated and hopeless than the short answer, but it’s still not a "no."
The Cardinals aren’t just searching for one of the hardest things to find in sports, a winning culture, they’re searching for anything that can be identified as culture.
Therein lies the issue for Mike LaFleur: How does he build that as a new coach?
Well, LaFleur would be served best by not being anything like Gannon, whose weird antics drove Arizona fans up a wall regularly.
LaFleur will bring the McVay/Rams West Coast offense to the desert. He has Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson essentially playing the same positions as Davante Adams and Puka Nacua played for the Rams.
The system will be similar in terms of formations and motions designed to put defenders in conflict.
“You don't want to just motion to motion,” LaFleur told The Republic's Theo Mackie. “There should always be a reason to why you're motioning. Whether you're changing leverages, changing matchups.”
The rest is up to not just LaFleur, but the entire Cardinals organization to discover.
Great players have come and gone, good coaches have done the same, and the most the Cardinals ever had to show for was one of the most exciting Super Bowl games ever, only to end in heartbreak.
Pat Tillman, Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner, Carson Palmer, Darnell Dockett, Anquan Boldin, Patrick Peterson, Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins all came and went.
A 175-244-2 regular-season record is what they could muster in their time in Arizona, and now, as a contract dispute with would-be starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett looms over the team, more of the same seems likely in 2026.
Now, however, players such as Budda Baker, Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Trey McBride, Jeremiyah Love and Chase Bisontis are all here to say otherwise.
As bleak as things look, a foundation is in place.
Wilson and McBride each gained over 1,000 receiving yards and Baker is still leading the defense. More will be asked of second-year defenders Walter Nolen, Will Johnson, Jordan Burch and Cody Simon.
Love, the prize of the Cardinals' 2026 draft, rounds out what could be a legitimately threatening NFL offense. If Brissett can be average, the Cardinals will have something to build on as they continue their search for their quarterback of the future.
Carson Beck was selected in the third round in the 2026 draft, but isn’t likely to see much playing time early. Even when the time comes for Beck, the Cards seemed destined to be looking for a quarterback in next year’s draft.
One certainty is that the sun will continue to rise in the desert, and, as the Cardinals fight perpetual irrelevance, the fans will continue to take their lumps on Sundays with the hope that — at some point — it has to end.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How the Cardinals are viewed from Texas, by a Dallas Cowboys fan
Continue reading...
For a Texan, who, for the record, has followed the Dallas Cowboys my whole life, this game sums up the Cardinals’ experience, and I have some analysis to share. I understand the sentiment: "Who cares what a Cowboys fan thinks?!" But Cardinals fans don't have to keep reading.
That day, Cardinals fans saw a 15-point lead evaporate before their eyes at around the 13-minute mark in the fourth quarter. It began right around the time Cardinals running back Emari Demercado took a would-be 70+ yard score to the house, only to let up before crossing the goal line and have the ball knocked out of his hands by Titans cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.
The ball was shot out to the back of the end zone for a touchback and the Cards crumbled to a rookie quarterback and a team that eventually won three games, one fewer than Arizona.
Cardinals fans sank into their seats, in a near-emotionless daze, another low point among decades of disappointment they have endured.
It feels like the continuation of a tired trek of tribulation that has spanned seemingly the entire time the team has been in Arizona.
Fans huffing at game-ending field goals, and the understanding that this winning thing simply isn’t for them.
You must be registered for see images attach
Where are Cardinals fans found outside of Arizona?
Despite all the frustration, the Cardinals are popular not just in the US, but also in Mexico.
According to a 2024 study done by gambling site CSGOLuck, the Cardinals have the second-most out-of-state fans, based on users typing Google keywords related to an NFL team outside of their home state over the past 12 months.
Their average monthly searches for the Cardinals outside of Arizona totaled 15,993. With the Cardinals' old stomping grounds of Missouri and Illinois coming up second and third, respectively, on that list.
A separate 2025 study done by Vivid Seats revealed that Cardinals strongholds exist in New Mexico and Utah, with a couple of counties as far north as Alaska, in Yukon-Koyukuk, and North Slope.
You must be registered for see images
At the same time Arizona Cardinals fandom has expanded in Mexico significantly, thanks largely to former Cardinals player Rolando Cantu.
The "Thursday Night Football en Español" analyst and a manager of the Cardinals' international business ventures, Cantu, a Mexican native from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, has helped syndicate "Cardenales Spanish" radio affiliates in México.
From the Pacific to Nogales down south to Guadalajara, Cardinals radio coverage has been available in at least 21 cities since 2021.
Cardinals fans have gone international.
Is there hope for all these fans?
The short answer is yes, of course there’s hope, in the sense that there is always hope, in the sense that destruction brings creation, and Jonathan Gannon’s regime has been demolished to make way for first-year Arizona coach Mike LaFleur.
LaFleur is a 39-year-old perceived NFL wonder-kid in the vein of his old head coach Sean McVay -- and his older brother, Matt LaFleur, up in Green Bay.
However, the long answer is something Cardinals fans seemed prepared for. The long answer is more nuanced, complicated and hopeless than the short answer, but it’s still not a "no."
You must be registered for see images
The Cardinals aren’t just searching for one of the hardest things to find in sports, a winning culture, they’re searching for anything that can be identified as culture.
Therein lies the issue for Mike LaFleur: How does he build that as a new coach?
Well, LaFleur would be served best by not being anything like Gannon, whose weird antics drove Arizona fans up a wall regularly.
LaFleur will bring the McVay/Rams West Coast offense to the desert. He has Marvin Harrison Jr. and Michael Wilson essentially playing the same positions as Davante Adams and Puka Nacua played for the Rams.
The system will be similar in terms of formations and motions designed to put defenders in conflict.
“You don't want to just motion to motion,” LaFleur told The Republic's Theo Mackie. “There should always be a reason to why you're motioning. Whether you're changing leverages, changing matchups.”
The rest is up to not just LaFleur, but the entire Cardinals organization to discover.
Great players have come and gone, good coaches have done the same, and the most the Cardinals ever had to show for was one of the most exciting Super Bowl games ever, only to end in heartbreak.
Pat Tillman, Larry Fitzgerald, Kurt Warner, Carson Palmer, Darnell Dockett, Anquan Boldin, Patrick Peterson, Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins all came and went.
A 175-244-2 regular-season record is what they could muster in their time in Arizona, and now, as a contract dispute with would-be starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett looms over the team, more of the same seems likely in 2026.
Now, however, players such as Budda Baker, Marvin Harrison Jr., Michael Wilson, Trey McBride, Jeremiyah Love and Chase Bisontis are all here to say otherwise.
As bleak as things look, a foundation is in place.
Wilson and McBride each gained over 1,000 receiving yards and Baker is still leading the defense. More will be asked of second-year defenders Walter Nolen, Will Johnson, Jordan Burch and Cody Simon.
Love, the prize of the Cardinals' 2026 draft, rounds out what could be a legitimately threatening NFL offense. If Brissett can be average, the Cardinals will have something to build on as they continue their search for their quarterback of the future.
Carson Beck was selected in the third round in the 2026 draft, but isn’t likely to see much playing time early. Even when the time comes for Beck, the Cards seemed destined to be looking for a quarterback in next year’s draft.
One certainty is that the sun will continue to rise in the desert, and, as the Cardinals fight perpetual irrelevance, the fans will continue to take their lumps on Sundays with the hope that — at some point — it has to end.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How the Cardinals are viewed from Texas, by a Dallas Cowboys fan
Continue reading...
