It's Easy To Root For A Winner

[NJCardFan]

I'b been a passionate sports fan since I was 8 years old. My first love was hockey. The Philadelphia Blazers to be exact. Bernie Parent was my first sports hero. The following season the Blazers moved to Vancouver and Parent jumped back to the NHL and went to the Flyers. That season and the next, the Flyers won the Stanley Cup. Then came my love for baseball brought on by my signing up for Little League. By that time, the Phillies were starting to come into their own. Watching the core of Mike Schmidt, Larry Bowa, Greg Luzinski, Bob Boone, and Steve Carlton gave we fans something to hope for. Unfortunately, the ultimate prize didn't happen for several years.

It was at this same time when my love for football began. Unlike other sports, local loyalty to the 'home' football team was spotty. Yes, there were more Eagles fans than than other teams but thanks to the Dolphins undefeated season, there were pockets of Dolphin fans, my older brother and his best friend chief among them(they still are fans). In my neighborhood and school there were Colts fans, Stealer fans, Viking fans, and the inevitable Cowboy fans. Me, I didn't have any real allegiances although I was first partial to the Vikings only because my dad, ever the bargain hunter, found 2 windbreakers, one Stealers(my brother) and one Vikings(for me) and I also rooted for the Dolphins because of my brother. However, being the kid that I was, I was looking in the newspaper and reading the NFL standings and on top of the NFC East read "St. Louis". So, without any real rationale, I announced that I was going to be a Cardinals fan.

Of course, this was the Air Coryell days. Jim Hart, Terry Metcalf, Mel Grey, Jim Otis, Conrad Dobler, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith, and the rest. I watched every game I could and since the Cards were in the NFC East, they were on TV quite a bit playing the hometown Eagles, nearby Giants and Redskins, and of course, Cowboys. One particular memory was watching the Cards dismantle the defending NFC champion Vikings 27-7. Then beating the Cowboys and Eagles to go into Thanksgiving 7-3 and atop the NFC East, trying to get back to the playoffs after failing to make the playoffs the previous season even though we had won 10 games. That Thanksgiving, we were playing the Miami Dolphins in St. Louis. This was a time when the league was looking for a team, other than the Lions, to be an annual Thanksgiving day game. Unfortunately for us, and me in particular, the Cards were destroyed 55-14. My brother and his best friend rode me like Secretariat for that one. Then the Cards went on to lose the next 2 games to the terrible Giants and to Coryell's perennial thorn in his side, the Redskins. sitting at 7-6 and out of the playoffs again, we had a chance to salvage the season against the now 1-26 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A team that not only just won their first ever game after 26 consecutive losses to begin their franchise, but who were poo out an amazing 6 times that season and who scored 7 or less points 10 out of the previous 13 games that season. Well, they decided to hold us to 7 points while scoring 17 completing the disastrous finish to 1977. This, of course, led to the dismantling of the Coyrell team. He was fired while Conrad Dobler was traded and Terry Metcalf defected to Canada.

1978 saw us lose our first 8 games which gave us a Buccaneer like 12 game losing streak that stretched to the previous season which, considering our head coach was the legendary Bud Wilkenson, was hard to swallow. But we broke the losing streak in Philadelphia with me in attendance at my first ever live football game, 16-10, over the playoff bound Eagles. We finished the season strong winning 6 of the last 8 games(this was the first year of the 16 game season). But the 55-14 loss to Miami in 1977 was the catalyst of Cardinal futility that carried all the way to 1998 with a few stops of winning seasons in 1982-1984 but only 1 playoff appearance that saw us get stomped by the Packers then had a division title dangled in front of us only to see a game winning kick sail wide right in Washington. We didn't smell a winning season for another 14 years and a whole other city as we moved to the Valley in 1988.

Of course, our fortunes have changed. A new stadium and new regime(Mike Bidwill took over for his skinflint father Bill) and a new winning attitude. From 2007 to now saw us have more winning seasons than not, 2 trips to the conference championship game, and 1 Super Bowl appearance in which we came within a whisker of winning and until this last Super Bowl, was arguably the greatest Super Bowl of all time. But we long time Cardinal fans know what die hard really means. Those of you who braved the heat in a terrible stadium rooting for an even worse team can attest.

But as we all know, it's easy to root for a winner. In my lifetime, I saw an uptick in 49er fans, Bear fans, Stealer fans, and now Patriot fans simply because they were champions. Hell, I've never seen so many Cubs and Cavaliers fans in all my life now, most of these people couldn't name 5 players on their 'favorite' teams. But we Cardinal fans stick it out. Through the good times and the (mostly) bad. Through the heartache and heartbreak. We are true fans. And, someday, we will be rewarded.

 

[Mitch]

Excellent story, NJCF. Superb recount of the seasons in the late 70s. It's a good thing that the Cardinals, despite many years of underachieving and disappointment are addictive, otherwise many of us might have jumped ship somewhere along the way.

As a out-of-town fan since 1963, I think of the Cardinals in 3 categories:

1. The Watch the Score Scroll Years -- when most of the Cardinals' games were not televised in the NY area -- so I sat there glued to the scroll and in tight games would literally have my fingers crossed. How elated I was whenever the Cardinals were on local TV and especially when they were on MNF. I will never forget the MNF Halloween game when I was 9 or 10 years old -- full moon over arches at Busch Stadium for the Bears vs. Cardinals and CB Roger Wehrli nabbed the game winning interception.

2. The Sports Bar Years -- watching the Cardinals' games on some remote TV not being able to hear the announcers because the prime-time local game was on all the big screens and the audio was on high volume. I so remember watching that FG at Washington sail wide -- and I remember one year feeling so frustrated when Neil O'Donohue missed a sure game-winning chip shot FG in OT on MNF that I sat in my car and quietly wept -- it just felt like year after years the Cardinals were cursed.

3. The NFL Sunday Ticket Years -- so happy to be able to watch the games in the cozy confines of my den, so much so in fact that back when Skkorp could get me and other ASFN writers press passes to games, I elected to watch the Patriots/Cardinals game at Gillette Stadium (5 minutes from my house) in my den rather than deal with the obnoxious Pats' fans.

In any event, I admire long-time Cardinals' fans such as yourself-- we are a rare breed. Our feathers have been plucked far too many times, but we bounce back with brand new red ones every year!

 

[Reign Blood]

Great topic. Good reading passionate fans.

I grew up a PK. "Preachers Kid". My father being a Baptist minister we moved a lot and found ourselves in Arizona after leaving St. Louis. I was always a Cards fan especially after I met Pat Tilley.. he dated my 5th grade teacher.

After moving back to the St. Louis area in '86 the Cards moved to Arizona the season after. Very ironic yes but I will always bleed Cardinal Red.

 

[Ronin]

#Faithful

 

[JeffGollin]

I grew up in a StL Card family transplanted to suburban NYC from StL. Baseball allegiance transferred to rooting for the Chicago FB Cardinals.

Actually my first FB loyalty at the end of the war years was to The Black Knights of the Hudson (Army) - featuring Mr Inside and Mr Outside, Blanchard and Davis). Back then, college football trumped pro football in terms of fan support.

Since our pee wee team ran the single wing, I rooted for single wing college tailbacks, Paul Giel, Paul Cameron, Jim Sears, Hank Lauricella and Dick Kazmeier

Player names held a magic quality for me. (Best name I ever heard was for a scatback in our pee wee league: "Speedy Glass"). We lived in Garth's home town of Scarsdale NY, but on Thanksgiving, we'd travel to nearby White Plains to watch what still remains the most dominating FB team I ever saw - The White Plains Tigers - coached by Glen Loucks - were rumored to have several players who were married with children. Top stars: Tyrone Holmes and T-Bone Lee. No HS school in the county would play them. They mostly played teams from other states.

Loucks (who ran Mohawk Day Camp in the summer) was known as "The Great White Father" and was said to hire White Plains players as counselors and hold illegal practice sessions early in the morning before camp began each day.

Like Mitch, my Cardinal rooting consisted of watching TV crawls, going to Giant games with the family and scanning the scoreboards at Yankee Stadium and Yale Bowl for Cardinal updates. Even finagled Giant season tickets for the Meadowlands so that I could see the Cardinals "live" once a year.

DirecTV changed all that - plus a major ticket hike. (I did the math - for half the money, I could give up my tickets and see all the Card games on satellite).

For years, the Cardinal teams featured (1) lethal RB's and (2) no pass rush. Quarterback play was spotty - Charley Johnson and Jim Hart on the upside, King Hill and Kelly Stouffer on the downside to name a few. Our Offensive line play and WR's were typically pretty good though.

Final anecdote - There is a Jewish tradition of honoring visitors at home when mourning a lost relative. It's called "sitting shiva." I was the only Cardinal FB holdout in a family of Giant fans, during that long stretch of years when the Giants ruled the roost and the Cardinals sucked. Each Sunday - after still another devestating Cardinal loss - my Dad would pull me aside and ask: "Son, why do you continue to sit shiva over that terrible football team?"

(Why do I continue to breathe air)?

 

[Krangodnzr]

I became a dyed in the wool Cardinals fan the final game of the Buddy Ryan tenure. I started going to games during Joe Bugels final season, but I would mainly go to socialize and meet girls.

If anyone remembers the final game of the Ryan years, the Cardinals were blown out on national TV by the Cowboys. I liked the Cowboys going into that game, but seeing my adopted hometown team get demolished by out of towners made an impression.

I can hold my head high as a fan because I became a fan during a truly brutal stretch. There were years that the Cardinals counted on rookie free agents to start. They were a strange team; with all world talents like Aeneas and Swanny, playing next to Toastito Paul and Bernard Wilson.

 

[Mitch]

I grew up in a StL Card family transplanted to suburban NYC from StL. Baseball allegiance transferred to rooting for the Chicago FB Cardinals.

Actually my first FB loyalty at the end of the war years was to The Black Knights of the Hudson (Army) - featuring Mr Inside and Mr Outside, Blanchard and Davis). Back then, college football trumped pro football in terms of fan support.

Since our pee wee team ran the single wing, I rooted for single wing college tailbacks, Paul Giel, Paul Cameron, Jim Sears, Hank Lauricella and Dick Kazmeier

Player names held a magic quality for me. (Best name I ever heard was for a scatback in our pee wee league: "Speedy Glass"). We lived in Garth's home town of Scarsdale NY, but on Thanksgiving, we'd travel to nearby White Plains to watch what still remains the most dominating FB team I ever saw - The White Plains Tigers - coached by Glen Loucks - were rumored to have several players who were married with children. Top stars: Tyrone Holmes and T-Bone Lee. No HS school in the county would play them. They mostly played teams from other states.

Loucks (who ran Mohawk Day Camp in the summer) was known as "The Great White Father" and was said to hire White Plains players as counselors and hold illegal practice sessions early in the morning before camp began each day.

Like Mitch, my Cardinal rooting consisted of watching TV crawls, going to Giant games with the family and scanning the scoreboards at Yankee Stadium and Yale Bowl for Cardinal updates. Even finagled Giant season tickets for the Meadowlands so that I could see the Cardinals "live" once a year.

DirecTV changed all that - plus a major ticket hike. (I did the math - for half the money, I could give up my tickets and see all the Card games on satellite).

For years, the Cardinal teams featured (1) lethal RB's and (2) no pass rush. Quarterback play was spotty - Charley Johnson and Jim Hart on the upside, King Hill and Kelly Stouffer on the downside to name a few. Our Offensive line play and WR's were typically pretty good though.

Final anecdote - There is a Jewish tradition of honoring visitors at home when mourning a lost relative. It's called "sitting shiva." I was the only Cardinal FB holdout in a family of Giant fans, during that long stretch of years when the Giants ruled the roost and the Cardinals sucked. Each Sunday - after still another devestating Cardinal loss - my Dad would pull me aside and ask: "Son, why do you continue to sit shiva over that terrible football team?"

(Why do I continue to breathe air)?

So glad you told your story, Jeff! The history is fabulous and you "sitting shiva" is hilarious!

 

[NJCardFan]

For several years my dad had Eagles season tickets and aside from the Monday night games and the Cowboys and Giants games I would go me and my brother would go to the rest and, of course, the Cardinal game was mine no matter what. Of course the fans were always accepting. Had beer thrown on my once. The Cards won the game(last in Philly as STL Cards) 31-19. The hard thing about being an out of state sports fan is that it's tough to see live games. My favorite game outside of when the Cards beat the Chargers in '98 was in St. Louis in 1987 against Tampa. Cards had already announced they were moving so there seemed to be about 200 fans in attendance at Busch. The Cards looked like they would have rather been somewhere else and fell behind 28-3 but in the 4th quarter, Lomax threw 3 TD passes and Niko Noga ran back a fumble to take the lead 31-28. The Bucs had one last shot and marched into Cardinal territory before Bucs kicker Donald Igwebuke clanged a 53 yard FG attempt off of the cross bar. I say clanged because you could literally hear the ball hit the crossbar. This game still ranks as one of the largest comebacks in history.

 

[Cheesebeef]

It was in my blood from the first home game in Az history... on Yom Kippur, which my dad convinced mom to let us bail on.

It was Monday night football... and at the end of the first half, we tried a fake FG and Al Del Greco somehow tried to get the first down, but got spun around and was running forwards... backwards. He got hammered about ten yards short of the first down.

It was the single dumbest thing I've ever seen.

We lost 17-14.

And I was in love.

 

[NJCardFan]

It was in my blood from the first home game in Az history... on Yom Kippur, which my dad convinced mom to let us bail on.

It was Monday night football... and at the end of the first half, we tried a fake FG and Al Del Greco somehow tried to get the first down, but got spun around and was running forwards... backwards. He got hammered about ten yards short of the first down.

It was the single dumbest thing I've ever seen.

We lost 17-14.

And I was in love.

The fact we lost to THAT Cowboy team was an embarrassment.

 

[JeffGollin]

Al Del Greco also participated in "the most boring game ever played" - another MNF contest - this time vs. the Giants - in a miserable drizzle that, if my memory serves me correctly, ended in a 20-20 tie.

 

[NJCardFan]

Al Del Greco also participated in "the most boring game ever played" - another MNF contest - this time vs. the Giants - in a miserable drizzle that, if my memory serves me correctly, ended in a 20-20 tie.

That was Neil O'Donahue. He missed a 19 yard FG in overtime.

 

[daves]

Al Del Greco also participated in "the most boring game ever played" - another MNF contest - this time vs. the Giants - in a miserable drizzle that, if my memory serves me correctly, ended in a 20-20 tie.

Ah, 1983. I remember that game well.

The season would serve as a study in contrasts as one of the most exciting Monday night games ever was followed the next week by one of the most badly played in the run of the series. On October 17, 1983, the highest scoring game in Monday Night Football history took place in the Green Bay Packers-Washington Redskins game, with the Packers winning the game by a score of 48–47. One week later, the New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals played for more than four hours before settling for a 20–20 overtime tie, MNF's only OT tie to date. The deadlock had come after dropped touchdown passes by Cardinal wide receivers Willard Harrell and Roy Green, and a trio of missed field goals by teammate Neil O'Donoghue, including two in the final 63 seconds of the overtime period.

...dave

 

[RedRob]

Loyalty can be a double edged sword. In this case one side being much more gratifying than the other...that is if you're in it for the long run.

I grew up in Southern Illinois, the vast majority of football fans used to be Cardinal supporters. Then the Cardinals left. I was just about to graduate high school when that took place. I made the conscious decision to stay a Cardinal fan while my elders whined and moaned about Bidwill (Bill of course).

As soon as I was able to I moved out west and eventually landed in Arizona whereby I immediately became a season ticket holder; this was in the Sun Devil Stadium days. Every year I'd go back to the mid-west and spend time with family and friends. They were relentless in attacking the Cardinals. Remember these folks now had their beloved Rams team. My dad, who is responsible for starting my Cardinal addiction, was an avid Ram fan.

And now what do we have? ANOTHER team that bailed on St. Louis. These same "die-hard" Ram fans are no longer fans of the NFL at all. It's so sweet to ask them how the Rams are doing for obvious reasons. It's really quite sad.

I've moved from Arizona some time ago yet still follow the Cardinals as I did back in the late 80's and all through the 90's. We're all so very fortunate to be in this position; specifically prior to the season with a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and who knows what from there. Definitely beats having to pretend you no longer care about the NFL.

 

[Reign Blood]

Loyalty can be a double edged sword. In this case one side being much more gratifying than the other...that is if you're in it for the long run.

I grew up in Southern Illinois, the vast majority of football fans used to be Cardinal supporters. Then the Cardinals left. I was just about to graduate high school when that took place. I made the conscious decision to stay a Cardinal fan while my elders whined and moaned about Bidwill (Bill of course).

As soon as I was able to I moved out west and eventually landed in Arizona whereby I immediately became a season ticket holder; this was in the Sun Devil Stadium days. Every year I'd go back to the mid-west and spend time with family and friends. They were relentless in attacking the Cardinals. Remember these folks now had their beloved Rams team. My dad, who is responsible for starting my Cardinal addiction, was an avid Ram fan.

And now what do we have? ANOTHER team that bailed on St. Louis. These same "die-hard" Ram fans are no longer fans of the NFL at all. It's so sweet to ask them how the Rams are doing for obvious reasons. It's really quite sad.

I've moved from Arizona some time ago yet still follow the Cardinals as I did back in the late 80's and all through the 90's. We're all so very fortunate to be in this position; specifically prior to the season with a legitimate shot at making the playoffs and who knows what from there. Definitely beats having to pretend you no longer care about the NFL.

I can relate 100%.

St Louis is a baseball town and always will be. When the Rams came to town I was hurt because they got a stadium the Cards needed. Oh I went to the games...when they played the Cardinals!

 

[JeffGollin]

That was Neil O'Donahue. He missed a 19 yard FG in overtime.

Oops! You're right/my bad.

 

[daves]

NJCardFan - we are about the same age and the similarities in our stories of becoming and remaining Cardinals fans are remarkable. I grew up in Reading, PA and reading your post was almost like reading something i had written years ago and forgotten - right down to learning to love football when the Cardinals were on top of the NFC East, the abundance of Stealers, Vikings, Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos, and Raiders fans in southeastern PA, the excitement of watching the "Cardiac Cards" playing vs. the NFC East teams and on MNF, that horrible Thanksgiving day meltdown vs. the Dolphins, and the embarrassing loss to the Buccaneers... which marked the beginning of decades of awful teams that i nevertheless walked a mile to the drug store to loiter and read about in a skimpy writeup in Pro Football Weekly.

As Mitch mentioned, at the beginning were the days of watching the score scroll, then thankfully the advent of Sunday Ticket in the bars with no audio (though there was one cool place in Virginia with a speaker on each table that could be tuned to the audio of any game, the bars were usually too loud with stinking Redskins fans and the speaker battery usually got so weak before the end of the game that i would be holding it up to my ear. But in between the two, when i was in grad school in Atlanta in the late 1980s, i could drive to the northwest side of the highest hill in town, park under the radio towers for three hours, and listen to an AM broadcast from KMOX in St. Louis, which continued to cover the Cardinals until the Rams arrived, straining to follow the game as it faded in and out through intense static.

I had literally never met another Cardinal fan in my life until moving to California in 2006. Now i watch the games with fellow Cardinals fans (Cheesebeef, and Ouchie every now and then) at a sports bar or on Sunday Ticket, get the best possible news and insights on the team here at ASFN, travel to regular season and playoff games in a great, comfortable stadium in AZ (as well as away games in LA and SF) quite regularly, and even went to a Super Bowl in Tampa.

Boy have times changed for the better! But i would never appreciate it as much without having gone through so many awful years.

Thanks for the writeups, guys!

...dave

 

[Mitch]

NJCardFan - we are about the same age and the similarities in our stories of becoming and remaining Cardinals fans are remarkable. I grew up in Reading, PA and reading your post was almost like reading something i had written years ago and forgotten - right down to learning to love football when the Cardinals were on top of the NFC East, the abundance of Stealers, Vikings, Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos, and Raiders fans in southeastern PA, the excitement of watching the "Cardiac Cards" playing vs. the NFC East teams and on MNF, that horrible Thanksgiving day meltdown vs. the Dolphins, and the embarrassing loss to the Buccaneers... which marked the beginning of decades of awful teams that i nevertheless walked a mile to the drug store to loiter and read about in a skimpy writeup in Pro Football Weekly.

As Mitch mentioned, at the beginning were the days of watching the score scroll, then thankfully the advent of Sunday Ticket in the bars with no audio (though there was one cool place in Virginia with a speaker on each table that could be tuned to the audio of any game, the bars were usually too loud with stinking Redskins fans and the speaker battery usually got so weak before the end of the game that i would be holding it up to my ear. But in between the two, when i was in grad school in Atlanta in the late 1980s, i could drive to the northwest side of the highest hill in town, park under the radio towers for three hours, and listen to an AM broadcast from KMOX in St. Louis, which continued to cover the Cardinals until the Rams arrived, straining to follow the game as it faded in and out through intense static.

I had literally never met another Cardinal fan in my life until moving to California in 2006. Now i watch the games with fellow Cardinals fans (Cheesebeef, and Ouchie every now and then) at a sports bar or on Sunday Ticket, get the best possible news and insights on the team here at ASFN, travel to regular season and playoff games in a great, comfortable stadium in AZ (as well as away games in LA and SF) quite regularly, and even went to a Super Bowl in Tampa.

Boy have times changed for the better! But i would never appreciate it as much without having gone through so many awful years.

Thanks for the writeups, guys!

...dave

Great post, dave! We've sure paid our dues, haven't we?!

 

[daves]

Great post, dave! We've sure paid our dues, haven't we?!

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed the 1998 playoff win over the Cowboys more than any Cowboy, Stealer, or Patriot fan could possibly enjoy "yet another" Super Bowl win! And seeing the win over the Eagles in the NFC Championship was probably the most elated i've ever been in my life!

...dave

 

[Reign Blood]

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed the 1998 playoff win over the Cowboys more than any Cowboy, Stealer, or Patriot fan could possibly enjoy "yet another" Super Bowl win!

...dave

Oh yes. I remember the Larry Centers interview. "I'm so proud of my team right now."

 

[NJCardFan]

Oh yes. I remember the Larry Centers interview. "I'm so proud of my team right now."

Of course he was let go by his team during the ensuing off season. That said, that win at Dallas was great because a) we beat their tails from one end of the field to the other and b) it was in Dallas. Sad thing is we simply couldn't keep up with the Vikings the next week. Then, of course, Billy Bids broke that team up and we went back into the toilet.

 

[Reign Blood]

Of course he was let go by his team during the ensuing off season. That said, that win at Dallas was great because a) we beat their tails from one end of the field to the other and b) it was in Dallas. Sad thing is we simply couldn't keep up with the Vikings the next week. Then, of course, Billy Bids broke that team up and we went back into the toilet.

I remember it well. That was a great start for Plummer, I always liked him too.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

It was in my blood from the first home game in Az history... on Yom Kippur, which my dad convinced mom to let us bail on.

It was Monday night football... and at the end of the first half, we tried a fake FG and Al Del Greco somehow tried to get the first down, but got spun around and was running forwards... backwards. He got hammered about ten yards short of the first down.

It was the single dumbest thing I've ever seen.

We lost 17-14.

And I was in love.

Love doesn't begin to describe it. Cheese was a grade school kid. I was in college. I called home every Sunday to speak to my folks and little cheesy. I swear to god he was the only gradeschooler who probably ever memorized offensive linemen stats. We'd talk for over an hour long distance about the game that week.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

NJCardFan - we are about the same age and the similarities in our stories of becoming and remaining Cardinals fans are remarkable. I grew up in Reading, PA and reading your post was almost like reading something i had written years ago and forgotten - right down to learning to love football when the Cardinals were on top of the NFC East, the abundance of Stealers, Vikings, Cowboys, Dolphins, Broncos, and Raiders fans in southeastern PA, the excitement of watching the "Cardiac Cards" playing vs. the NFC East teams and on MNF, that horrible Thanksgiving day meltdown vs. the Dolphins, and the embarrassing loss to the Buccaneers... which marked the beginning of decades of awful teams that i nevertheless walked a mile to the drug store to loiter and read about in a skimpy writeup in Pro Football Weekly.

As Mitch mentioned, at the beginning were the days of watching the score scroll, then thankfully the advent of Sunday Ticket in the bars with no audio (though there was one cool place in Virginia with a speaker on each table that could be tuned to the audio of any game, the bars were usually too loud with stinking Redskins fans and the speaker battery usually got so weak before the end of the game that i would be holding it up to my ear. But in between the two, when i was in grad school in Atlanta in the late 1980s, i could drive to the northwest side of the highest hill in town, park under the radio towers for three hours, and listen to an AM broadcast from KMOX in St. Louis, which continued to cover the Cardinals until the Rams arrived, straining to follow the game as it faded in and out through intense static.

I had literally never met another Cardinal fan in my life until moving to California in 2006. Now i watch the games with fellow Cardinals fans (Cheesebeef, and Ouchie every now and then) at a sports bar or on Sunday Ticket, get the best possible news and insights on the team here at ASFN, travel to regular season and playoff games in a great, comfortable stadium in AZ (as well as away games in LA and SF) quite regularly, and even went to a Super Bowl in Tampa.

Boy have times changed for the better! But i would never appreciate it as much without having gone through so many awful years.

Thanks for the writeups, guys!

...dave

Cheese and I used to be regulars with daves in the sports bat before I inherited two little boys and forked over Sunday ticket. Oh, and we were friends with daves for likely a year before we ever discovered we were all cards fans.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I'm pretty sure I enjoyed the 1998 playoff win over the Cowboys more than any Cowboy, Stealer, or Patriot fan could possibly enjoy "yet another" Super Bowl win! And seeing the win over the Eagles in the NFC Championship was probably the most elated i've ever been in my life!

...dave

Cheese cried. I was bent over wracked in pain as the cheering and lack of water resulted in wave after wave of stomach cramping!