As a football purist, I’ve enjoyed watching the Arizona Cardinals defy the punditry throughout the NFL Playoffs, finally catapulting themselves to a Super Bowl birth for the first time in franchise history. (As a Jets fan, I can only hope that the hiring of Rex Ryan as our new head coach can reap similar results.)
Watching this franchise rise from the depression that accompanies obscurity in America’s most popular sport to respectability in less than 12 months is a testament to the endearing power of sports and the parity of American football.
With the correct coach (Ken Whisenhunt), a solid front office/ownership group and talented athletes (Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald, among others), any team can become a great team in due time.
Because a Super Bowl appearance carries along a multitude of fresh experiences and memories for the fans of any NFL franchise, rest assured that this unknown tenor of excitement has swept over the Arizona desert and captured the dreams of the Cardinals faithful fans.
This Super Bowl excitement will overrun the Arizona community and establish a new grassroots, diehard fan base that will last for future generations. Arizona, your long national nightmare is now over.
Unlike any other professional sport in America, the NFL has the ability to quickly capture the psyche of its fan bases and create new followers through their marquee event, the Super Bowl.
While the rest of the TV viewing country might cringe at the sight of an “Arizona Cardinals/Pittsburgh Steelers” Super Bowl, NFL marketers secretly pump their fists.
The NFL’s marketers and advertisers know that the unnecessary pomp and circumstances surrounding this three-hour February spectacle will attract the attention of those tentative, non-loyal fans living in both small-market cities (Pittsburgh and Arizona).
Because their hometown teams are playing in the “Oh-so-important” Super Bowl game, these “new fans” become attached to their franchise and forever endeared to the sport.
Secondly, the rampant parity that defines American football allows struggling teams the opportunity to rise quickly to the top of the league.
This year, only five out of the 12 teams from last year repeated as playoff teams (Indy, NY Giants, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Tennessee). Out of those five repeating teams, only the Pittsburgh Steelers improved their position from last year by reaching this year’s Super Bowl.
This year, thanks in part to a weak NFC West division, the Arizona Cardinals were able to parlay the simplified “loyalty + brains + talent” franchise success equation into a Super Bowl birth, garnering lavish amounts of praise as the unexpected underdog and adding a tremendous amount of soon-to-be diehard fans for their franchise.
For Cardinals ownership, actually winning the Super Bowl is secondary. The fact that the Arizona Cardinals have actually gotten people to care about their existence as an NFL franchise is the real victory.
Arizona Cardinals, welcome to the National Football League.
Michael Benjamin is a senior English major from Queens Village, NY. You can check out more of his ramblings on sports over at his blog, PointsOffTurnovers.blogspot.com.
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