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http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2007-01-18-cardinals_x.htm
Is coaching the Arizona Cardinals a job or a suicide mission
There are dirty jobs that someone has to do. Occupations that, by nature, seem doomed to frustration and failure. Captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Hollywood marriage counselor, Republican in Massachusetts, French general.
Oh, and here's another one. Coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Ask the record book about that post, and the record book cringes.
Ken Whisenhunt just climbed aboard. Brave soul. So we should take a pause from the week's big pro football coaching news — Marty Schottenheimer's reprieve or the Super Bowl pursuits of Messrs. Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith and Sean Payton — to note the new, hopeful face at the bottom end of the NFL food chain.
"I feel like we're close (to winning)," Whisenhunt said of the Cardinals at his introductory press conference. Good thing. This is no job for a pessimist.
Maybe a brief review of Cardinals' history will explain the legacy he is up against.
You have to go back to 1998 to find one winning season. You have to go back to 1984 to find two.
You might remember the Cardinals' last postseason victory — a wild-card win over Dallas in 1998.
You probably won't remember one before that. It was 1947.
They were the Chicago Cardinals then. Later, the St. Louis Cardinals, then the Phoenix Cardinals and now the Arizona Cardinals. The names and faces and time zones have changed. The results, most often, have not.
They have been in Arizona for 19 years and gone through seven coaches, two stadiums ... and one season above .500.
The talk this week is of Sunday's showdowns, with a Super Bowl trip on the table. That's the game, in case any Cardinals were curious, with Roman numerals.
In the Super Bowl era, the Cardinals have seen as many conference championship games as they have flying elephants. None. The only other NFL franchises that can say that are the Houston Texans and new Cleveland Browns.
Even the Detroit Lions got close. The Lions lose nearly as relentlessly as the Cardinals. Matter of fact, the Cardinals are the Lions ... without Thanksgiving Day.
It's not easy to be bad this long in the NFL, which promotes parity as eagerly as dentists promote flossing. Either Chicago or New Orleans will be the 12th different NFC team in the past 16 Super bowls.
In those 16 years, the Cardinals have finished last or next-to-last in their division 14 times.
Into this Bermuda Triangle sails the former offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"I don't think you live in the past," Whisenhunt said at his press conference. Which seems like a sound philosophy when it's the Cardinals' past you're talking about.
Oh, the coaching names this franchise has chewed up and spit out. Bud Wilkinson built the longest winning streak in the history of college football. He went 9-20 with the Cardinals. Buddy Ryan was the architect of the famous Chicago Bears' 46 defense. He went 12-20. Curly Lambeau has the stadium in Green Bay named after him. He went 7-15. The last fulltime coach who left with a winning record was Don Coryell, 30 years ago.
So along comes Whisenhunt, who helped direct a Super Bowl champion offense with the Steelers and now yearns to remake the Cardinals faster than you can say Ben Roethlisberger.
He does have a young blossoming quarterback in Matt Leinart, Edgerrin James at running back, and some of the league's best receivers. There's hope.
So we'll let Whisenhunt get back to his assignment: building a staff and spitting in the face of history. And you wonder. Could there be any tougher job out there in the NFL than trying to make winners of the Arizona Cardinals?
Well, Terrell Owens might need a new publicist.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2007-01-18-cardinals_x.htm
Is coaching the Arizona Cardinals a job or a suicide mission
There are dirty jobs that someone has to do. Occupations that, by nature, seem doomed to frustration and failure. Captain of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, Hollywood marriage counselor, Republican in Massachusetts, French general.
Oh, and here's another one. Coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Ask the record book about that post, and the record book cringes.
Ken Whisenhunt just climbed aboard. Brave soul. So we should take a pause from the week's big pro football coaching news — Marty Schottenheimer's reprieve or the Super Bowl pursuits of Messrs. Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, Lovie Smith and Sean Payton — to note the new, hopeful face at the bottom end of the NFL food chain.
"I feel like we're close (to winning)," Whisenhunt said of the Cardinals at his introductory press conference. Good thing. This is no job for a pessimist.
Maybe a brief review of Cardinals' history will explain the legacy he is up against.
You have to go back to 1998 to find one winning season. You have to go back to 1984 to find two.
You might remember the Cardinals' last postseason victory — a wild-card win over Dallas in 1998.
You probably won't remember one before that. It was 1947.
They were the Chicago Cardinals then. Later, the St. Louis Cardinals, then the Phoenix Cardinals and now the Arizona Cardinals. The names and faces and time zones have changed. The results, most often, have not.
They have been in Arizona for 19 years and gone through seven coaches, two stadiums ... and one season above .500.
The talk this week is of Sunday's showdowns, with a Super Bowl trip on the table. That's the game, in case any Cardinals were curious, with Roman numerals.
In the Super Bowl era, the Cardinals have seen as many conference championship games as they have flying elephants. None. The only other NFL franchises that can say that are the Houston Texans and new Cleveland Browns.
Even the Detroit Lions got close. The Lions lose nearly as relentlessly as the Cardinals. Matter of fact, the Cardinals are the Lions ... without Thanksgiving Day.
It's not easy to be bad this long in the NFL, which promotes parity as eagerly as dentists promote flossing. Either Chicago or New Orleans will be the 12th different NFC team in the past 16 Super bowls.
In those 16 years, the Cardinals have finished last or next-to-last in their division 14 times.
Into this Bermuda Triangle sails the former offensive coordinator of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
"I don't think you live in the past," Whisenhunt said at his press conference. Which seems like a sound philosophy when it's the Cardinals' past you're talking about.
Oh, the coaching names this franchise has chewed up and spit out. Bud Wilkinson built the longest winning streak in the history of college football. He went 9-20 with the Cardinals. Buddy Ryan was the architect of the famous Chicago Bears' 46 defense. He went 12-20. Curly Lambeau has the stadium in Green Bay named after him. He went 7-15. The last fulltime coach who left with a winning record was Don Coryell, 30 years ago.
So along comes Whisenhunt, who helped direct a Super Bowl champion offense with the Steelers and now yearns to remake the Cardinals faster than you can say Ben Roethlisberger.
He does have a young blossoming quarterback in Matt Leinart, Edgerrin James at running back, and some of the league's best receivers. There's hope.
So we'll let Whisenhunt get back to his assignment: building a staff and spitting in the face of history. And you wonder. Could there be any tougher job out there in the NFL than trying to make winners of the Arizona Cardinals?
Well, Terrell Owens might need a new publicist.