Arizona Cardinals
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The Arizona Cardinals are a National Football League team based in Tempe, Arizona.
- Founded: 1898
- Formerly known as: Chicago Cardinals, 1920-1959; St. Louis Cardinals, 1960-1987; Phoenix Cardinals, 1988-1993.
- Home field: Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona. Currently constructing a future stadium in Glendale, Arizona which is scheduled to open in 2006
- Previous home fields (Since 1920):
- Normal Field (1920-1921), (1926-1928)
- Comiskey Park (1922-1925), (1929-1959)
- Sportsman's Park (1960-1965)
- Busch Stadium (1966-1987)
- Team colors: Cardinal red and White
- Helmet design: White with a cardinal head
- League championships won: NFL 1925, 1947
- Super Bowl appearances: none
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Franchise history
The Cardinals are the oldest existing football club in the United States, beginning as an amateur athletic club team in Chicago named the Morgan Athletic Club. They began to field a pro team even before the founding of the NFL. Located on Racine Avenue in Chicago, they became known for a while as the "Racine Cardinals". They were often confused with Racine, Wisconsin, by fans in other cities. As the "Chicago Racine Cardinals" and then as the "Chicago Cardinals", they entered the NFL and fought with the crosstown rival Chicago Bears for years before moving to St. Louis.
In 1944, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitts", or "Carpets".
The Cardinals won their only NFL championship game in 1947 with their "dream backfield" which included quarterback Paul Christman and halfback Charlie Trippi.
Between 1960 and 1987, St. Louis was home to the Cardinals, a period when two big-league teams of that name existed in the city. Sports fans and local news coverage got into the habit of calling them "the football Cardinals" or "the baseball Cardinals" to distinguish the two. They left St. Louis when owner Bill Bidwill was unable to convince the city to build a new stadium.
Since the move to the Phoenix area in 1988, the Cardinals have made the playoffs only once (1998, where they defeated the Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round) and have had one of the worst attendance records in the NFL year-after-year, consistently. The team has started construction on a new stadium in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale. This stadium, which will feature a retractable roof and a slide-out grass surface, is scheduled to open for the 2006 season. Super Bowl XLII will be played in this stadium.
Players of note
Pro Football Hall of Famers
Current players
- Anquan Boldin
- Josh McCown
- Larry Fitzgerald
- Marcel Shipp
- Kurt Warner
- Adrian Wilson
- Bertrand Berry
- Duane Starks
- Scott Player
- Leonard Davis
- Antrel Rolle
Not to be forgotten
- Jim Bakken
- Larry Centers
- Boomer Esiason
- Roy Green
- Jim Hart
- Ken Harvey
- Garrison Hearst
- Neil Lomax
- Tim McDonald
- Jamir Miller
- Rob Moore
- Jake Plummer
- Ricky Proehl
- Simeon Rice
- J.T. Smith
- Jackie Smith
- Eric Swann
- Pat Tillman
- Tom Tupa
- Aeneas Williams
- Emmitt Smith
Retired numbers
- 8 Larry Wilson
- 40 Pat Tillman
- 77 Stan Maudlin
- 88 J.V. Cain
- 99 Marshall Goldberg
External link
- Arizona Cardinals official web site (http://www.azcardinals.com/)
- Arizona Cardinals News and Links (http://www.nflnewsrack.com/arizona_cardinals.html)