My final comments on the whole "Media Disrespect" thing...

[82CardsGrad]

First, I am one who loves the fact that the Cards still do not receive national respect and recognition. I also am one who can understand why this is the case. Unlike a huge number of people on this board who constantly, virtually daily bitch and moan about some "expert" dissing the Cards, I can see why it occurs and am never shocked by the lack of respect we receive.
IMHO, even though we won the west again, and won 10 games this year while coming off a near Super Bowl victory the last seaosn, we are still the Cards - the most wretched franchise in NFL history - to most of America. My brothers still live in the NYC area. They are intense sports fans, particularly football. And while they enjoy watching Cards games, they still give them virtually no credit and respect. Why is this?

1.) It will take years and years to remove the stain of decades worth of historic losing. That's a reality that we all simply need to accept. The rest of the country, including all of the so-called "experts" are very hesitant to believe that what is happening here in the desert is anything more than a hot team with a hot, hall of fame QB and some decent talent on offense, playing in the "worst division in the NFL" experiencing a momentary blip and that once Warner retires, the team will fall back to its' historic losing ways... So it will take several years of Post-Warner winning to truly convince America that the Cards are no longer the worst NFL franchise...

2.) We still do things to bring the disrespect upon us... We still lose games on National TV in very, very bad fashion. Sure, we beat the Vikes on national TV, but then the very next week we get blown out by the wretched 9ers... This only serves to further the view that the rest of the country has - which is that we are simply riding a hot, HOF QB and will crash back to earth once he's gone...

3.) We beat the Packers and put up 51 points on the #2 ranked defense in the NFL! Yet, all everyone (the rest of the country) wants to discuss is how great of a performance Rogers had... and, oh yea, the Cards won, but geez - they let up 45 friggin points along the way!!
A win like the Packers win did nothing to help strip away the image the rest of America has of the Cards...

This is harsh of course and a bit unfair, but perceptions are usually not fair. If we were to somehow go on and repeat as NFC Champs and put up another great showing in the Super Bowl, I am still not sure we would notice much of a change in the way America treats this franchise. As I said, it will take years of sustained, post-Warner winning to create the change so many of you seem to strongly desire... And more importantly, if after Kurt leaves we do slide back, you are not gonna want to read the papers or watch ESPN/NFL network... the repercussions to this team will be horrendously harsh...

Just my two pennies worth... after speaking with my brothers this morning, this all became very clear to me.

 

[LDL]

ya, hoah... we will need to become a playoff tradition and not an aboration to garner any respect...

 

[BullheadCardFan]

82,

Thanks for writing this for everyone to see. Totally agree with what you said.

 

[82CardsGrad]

Ugggh... We've been set back quite a bit after today...

 

[Chopper0080]

I agree with this. But, with as bad as we were, we couldn't fix everything. A couple more divisional titles and playoff runs will take care of our media disrespect.

 

[conraddobler]

Ugggh... We've been set back quite a bit after today...

It's one of the main reasons I wanted to move on past Warner.

Now I was wrong in that Warner isn't really the problem but still the fact remains that we need to balance out our team.

Our team is too one dimensional, too focused on Warner, too dependent on Warner.

Whiz is a great coach and highly competitive but it's time we face some facts, you can't win with just Warner and a bunch of WR's, we almost did, we almost pulled it off in a very magical season but we didn't and that's as close as we will EVER come unless this team grows into something much more than it is now.

Warner isn't a limiting factor but he does allow the mental laziness the idea that we're better than we are to exist.

This team needs to become more well rounded and until it does I agree completely with what you just said.

 

[Scott MS]

I think another reason why the Cards don't get the respect is that they simply don't put up a good enough record each year. 9-7 and 10-6 are OK, but the media couldn't stop talking about the Saints when they were 10-0.

There's a certain respect when you finish with 13-3 or 14-2 that says you're a damn good team. The Cards put together a winning season, but not a convincingly winning season.

 

[PitchShifter]

82, what you've detailed is exactly why the talk earlier this season about whether the Cards were an Elite team or not was ridiculous.
Hopefully what has been witnessed over the past 3 years is a phoenix rising from the ashes and the start of that tradition.

 

[Fitz Rulz]

This will be the media comment next year
Their defense got pounded 45 pts back to back
will we still blame the media?

Just we need to get back to playoffs next year. Other than that, we'll expect media trashing years to come