Yeah I've been saying for a while this was going to happen.
When I saw the schedule it was one of the first things that caught my eye.
Our last 3 home games are Vikings, Packers, Seahawks.
I expected us to be good this year, most likely a playoff team and giving Seattle a run for the division.
So I looked at that schedule and thought great, we're a good team, in our 3rd year of success on this run and in our final 3 season homegames there will be a crapload of opposing fans there.
I think that is the point that is getting missed in this debate. If you sell your tickets you sell your tickets its a free country, but this has to have a psychological effect on the players.
And please, spare me the; "They are millionaires they should do their job" machismo.
Football is an emotional sport, you feed off your home crowd (see the endless roof debate) so I dont care how much of a pro you are.
Imagine for a moment you are a member of the Cardinals. You went to college at a big school back east like LSU, Michigan, Florida, etc... Your whole life you have counted on feeding off your home crowd. So now you are running out of the tunnel in your home stadium for a game against the packers. A game where you are trying to seal up the 2 seed in the NFC, you have already won your division and you are considered one of the best teams in the NFC... So you run out of the tunnel in your home stadium and you are slapped in the face by 30,000 packer fans.
That just flat out sucks and again, I dont care how much of a "pro" you are, that has to have a disheartening effect on a team. You feel like, man, what do we have to do?
Players dont care about the whole debate of who's fault it is or if it's right or wrong. All they know is they have to use a silent count in their home stadium. All they know is they dont have as many diehard fans as other teams.
Other teams notice it to, and I'm sure aren't shy about pointing it out to our players. Which is why I have been saying all year that I hope the coaching staff is mentally preparing these guys for what is coming at the end of the year. Even the Seattle game will have quite a few bandwagoning 12's asking what exactly is happening on the field right now.
Like I've said, it's not going to change anytime soon, and it really doesn't matter who's fault it is, it just sucks. And I agree, it is embarassing, but Phx is what it is. People want to move here, people want to vacation here and those same people want to go see "their team" play when they come here.