What it Means to be an Arizona Sports Fan

Warner and the Cardinals loss this Sunday to the mediocre Tampa Bay Buccaneers after two weeks to plan for the game and a healthy wide receiver Anquan Boldin to help out. Warner looked dazed throughout the game and nothing like his Super Bowl MVP self. Arizona defense looked solid but too many 3 and outs from Warner left them on the field for well over 2/3's of the game and the exhaustion became too much to endure.

The Cardinals are now 3-5 with the season slipping away. In most markets, such a loss would be the most talked about subject around the watercooler and online forums would be ripe for calls of somebody's head, but this is Arizona and we have claimed more heads than Henry VIII and frankly we are saturated with our thirst for blood.

But yesterday's game was indicitive of Arizona sports, in that the fourth quarter told the story of the game, the season to this point and most likely the season from here on. After years of watching Arizona teams play, I have realized that it is ALWAYS the fourth quarter/period/9th inning that tells the story for the team's season. My realization came during the Diamondbacks surprising NLWest championship whilst being outscoured during the regular season.

The Diamondbacks won the West by coming through in one run games, and often claiming those wins in the 9th inning. Their 9th inning wins were always a surprise to their opponents who usually led by a couple runs before calling in their closer, and losing by just enough to send them home wondering what happened. And this is exactly what happened to the Dodgers and Padres this season. The Diamondbacks slow to start (and somebody everyone had written off long before the season had started) produced when it counted and claimed the title.

The Cardinals this year have been a different story, but their story can be told in the last minutes of each game as well. Wisenhunt, in a recent press conference, claimed that they have never been really beat this year and were contenders in every game, but their record is 3-5 and the season is half over with what is so far a losing season. Granted, Leinart is out and so was Warner for a while but even so the Cardinals were close enough to win every game but failed to do so in one way or another and if history is any indication their season will reflect the same. They will finish 7-16 or someone equivalent so that they fall just shy of claiming the West despite making a strong showing.

This article is already too long to go through Denny Green's season last year but merely mentioning the 2006 Monday Night lost to the Bears is enough to see the parralells.

But Arizona fans will continue to watch with the detached enjoyment that you get from minor league baseball or a good hockey game. Fans have nothing invested and are already planning on how they will watch and follow next year's season. Wisenhunt will have had a year to see how his team plays and Leinart should be healthy and hopefully humble enough to become the franchise quarterback that could utilize our two primetime wide receivers.

Is it surprising that Arizona fans are so cynical?

Leinart has the year off and still not visiting his baby

In the three days that I have been living this facade as a Arizona beat sports writer, I actually have not contributed any real original content. Everything I have posted could be found on the routine websites that most everyone else concerned with Arizona sports visits anyways. Until now...

Keep in mind, this is breaking here first and comes from a very close and confirmed source. Matt Leinart hasn't upped his baby visits in the weeks since his season-ending injury. Astounding, I know... I realize that merely breaking your collarbone doesnt relieve you of all your football responsibilities. Afterall, you still have to ice Warner's arm, and slip increasing amounts of Drano into his Fiji water bottle on the chance that he will be too debilitated to start next year. But all the same... my guess is, if you make a trip to Cali, you should take the half hour drive to visit yo' baby's momma (and I guess the baby) in Aguorra Hills.

That aside, the Cardinals are 3-4 after remaining very tight in all the games and the four loses coming in 4th quarters that could have gone either way. This Sunday they face the Tampa Bay Bucs, who are mediocre at best. Warner should start, with a very wide-eyed Ratay (pickup backup QB who played three quarters three weeks ago, and only four days after being found picking up towels off of a Phoenix high school gym floor) waiting on the sideline.

After all that can be said of the Cardinals, they lead the league in penalties but otherwise have performed for once like a team that belongs in the NFL. And to be honest, penalities are much easier to fix than pretty much any other deficiency you might find in the NFL. The trick is to just do it, of course.

One last note, Cardinals are one game behind in the most mediocre division in the NFL, which means that there is alot left for the Cardinals to do before this season is written off.

I'll write a real report next week, after we see Sunday's game and the changes Wisenhunt enacted furing the last bye week.