Dave Pasch, the radio voice of the Arizona Cardinals, set the scene for our Game of the Week. "These fans are going crazy in anticipation of what many feel is the biggest game in this stadium," Pasch said, previewing last Sunday's matchup between the Cardinals (3-2) and Cowboys (4-1).
We all know the last Super Bowl was played at University of Phoenix Stadium and, sure, the New York Giants' upset of the previously unbeaten New England Patriots -- with all that history and all that confetti -- would have to qualify as the biggest game to take place in that venue. That's a given, but that's also beside the point.
What Pasch was saying -- quite correctly -- was this was the biggest game for the home team, the Cardinals. The last time there was this much electricity for an Arizona home game, Cuba Gooding, Jr. was playing wide receiver for the Cardinals and Tom Cruise was standing in the Sun Devil Stadium end zone. Surely, you remember the 1996 box office smash Jerry Maguire.
Only Hollywood, it seemed, could put the Arizona Cardinals on America's sports marquee. From the time the team moved to the Valley of the Sun from St. Louis in 1988, it struggled to find an identity. The Cardinals had just one winning season in all that time and their home attendance was the lowest in the league.
When Anquan Boldin joined the team in 2003, he was stunned at the lack of fan interest. Only 23,127 folks turned out for the home opener which the Cardinals lost 38-0 to Seattle. "I was shocked," said Boldin, who played before sellout crowds every week at Florida State. "It looked like a scrimmage."
But those days appear to be over in Arizona. The sparkling new stadium in Glendale with the retractable roof and the plush seating is part of the reason. It is a far more comfortable venue than Sun Devil Stadium where the scorching desert sun made the early season home games a test of endurance. But there is another factor, too. These Cardinals are a team worth watching.
The Big Red is leading the NFC West and 37-year-old Kurt Warner is enjoying a career rebirth in Arizona. The former league MVP went into the Dallas game as the third highest ranked passer in the NFL, completing almost 70 percent of his attempts, 10 for touchdowns. Larry Fitzgerald was fourth in receptions with 31 catches for a gaudy 15.1 yard average.
For 20 years, the Cardinals tried unsuccessfully to create a true home-field advantage. Prior to moving into the new stadium, they had just 16 sellouts. Ten of those were dates with the Cowboys when most of the tickets were snapped up by Dallas fans who made Sun Devil Stadium look like a sea of silver and blue. That is no longer the case.
When the Cardinals hosted the Cowboys on Sunday, most of the sellout crowd was dressed in red and when J.J. Arrington returned the opening kickoff for a 93-yard touchdown their cheers threatened to blow the roof right off the stadium. Coming into the game, the Big Red had won five consecutive games at the University of Phoenix Stadium and were 8-2 overall at home under head coach Ken Whisenhunt.
As Pasch told his radio audience: "You win this game today, you beat the Dallas Cowboys and you send a message to the rest of the National Football League that you're for real."
