So how did you guys become Cards fans?

[Lloydian]

I root for the home team.

I learned about football as a preteen growing up in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch. The first game I ever attended was a 1973 playoff game between the Rams and Cowboys, and we arrived as they sang the National Anthem. We were at the wrong end of the stadium, and by the time we found our seats, the Cowboys were up 14-0. Football had me hooked.

The neighbors were from St. Louis and always talked about their beloved Cardinals. During my seven years in Texas, there was no team I hated more than the Cardinals (even more than the traditional enemy, the Redskins).

When the team moved to Arizona, eight years after I did, I became a season ticket holder but found my loyalties only slightly in favor of the home team. After that season, Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys, fired Tom Landry, cut most of the players, and became another team in my mind. My loyalties have not been split since.

 

[Bada0Bing]

I grew up in Oregon. I started following football when I was about 10 (1984) and started collecting football cards. The Cowboys were my team back then. Then I got to high school and couldn’t stand the other Cowboy fans so I dropped them as my team. I was just a fan of the game for a while. Then I moved down to AZ in 93 and was jack’d to finally have a home football team.

 

[FArting]

born and raised here

i like all the local teams except for u of a

 

[gusmahler]

born and raised here

i like all the local teams except for u of a

U of A ain't local to Phoenix.

 

[gusmahler]

I moved to AZ in 96, the same year Boomer Esiason moved to AZ. Since he played for my alma mater, I decided to "root for the home team" and adopted the Cards as my team. (I was mainly a generic football fan before then, though my parents LOVED the Redskins).

When I moved away from AZ, I was planning on switching teams, but then realized that I didn't like any team nearly as much as I liked the Cards.

 

[denverbirdfan]

grew up 2 hours from busch stadium in st. louis.

dad had season tix when i was a kid and i fell in love with neil lomax to roy green touchdown passes. oh, and of course, o.j. anderson and stump mitchell touchdown runs. and the big red line.

and when they played that small part of the cards loyalty song really slow..."baaa ba baaaa...ba baa ba ba ba baaaaaa!!!!"

and dad & me bundled up in huge winter coats w/ a thermos of hot chocolate, cheering for the big red to beat the cowboys.

then they moved away, and i had to watch the bears on tv.

then college at asu in 1996. watched boomer and kent graham. jake took me to the rose bowl as a freshman, and then the cards to the playoff in 1998. we'd sneak into the stadium to watch cause we couldn't afford tix. great days.

started young. hooked for life. only about 60 more years of this crap.

 

[RugbyMuffin]

I was walking out of a bar, and WHAM something hit me on the head.

I woke up on this big red ship, and can't figure how to get off of it.

 

[AZ Shocker]

So I jump ship in Hong Kong and make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. A looper, you know, a caddy, a looper, a jock. So, I tell them I'm a pro jock, and who do you think they give me? The Dalai Lama, himself. Twelfth son of the Lama. The flowing robes, the grace, bald... striking. So, I'm on the first tee with him. I give him the driver. He hauls off and whacks one - big hitter, the Lama - long, into a ten-thousand foot crevasse, right at the base of this glacier. Do you know what the Lama says? Gunga galunga... gunga, gunga-galunga. So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but you will be a fan of the Arizona Cardinals and, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

The Shark

I'd say that Dalai Lama ripped you off.

Nice Caddyshack reference though!

 

[CardinalChris]

Al Del Greco kicking the winning extra point 24-23 after a Roy Green Touchdown in 88. I live in the Bay Area and was so SICK of hearing about the Niners I fell in love wiht Arizona after erasing a 23-0 halftime deficit.

 

[dogpoo32]

ages 4-8 i was a Vikings fan. Solely because I loved their uniforms. Homosexuality? Your call. ages 8-14, I was a Packers fan. I don't know why, but I loved crappy teams. They won the super bowl, there were GB fans everywhere. Not my scene at 14. So then I jumped ship to the Cardinals. Not growing up in an NFL city, I had free choice to pick any team in the NFL and stick with them. In my lust for the inept (dont tell my wife) and my desire to be a part of something bigger than me, bigger than success and bigger than the Broncos, Cowboys or Raiders... I chose the team from Arizona. I was already a Suns fan, so it made the transition easier. Hell. at 14 with a teen-stache... all I knew was I loved boobs and football. My first Cards game was when the Cards beat the Chargers to go the playoffs. Sealed it. Only other game I've been to since was the first game of this season. Cards are 2-0 when I'm present. Take that NEZ!

 

[Jersey Girl]

My father was an avid Eagle hater and his joy at watching a Cardinal drubbing of the Eagles 44-0 back in the 60s planted the seed in me, although I didn't understand what was going on and took a couple of years to be an active football fan.
So it was just bad luck.

As a current Eagle hater, I really enjoyed this story!

 

[Jersey Girl]

Yes, SWD, there are a million threads on this topic, but so be it.

Summer before the Cards first season in AZ, my family went on vacation to the great state of AZ. I was just getting into football (was 16, I think). Sis rooted for the Cowgirls, brother for the Eagles. Needed my own team. Everyone was hyped in AZ and I got wrapped up. Been a fan ever since, although, since I could only see games at the bar at age 21, couldn't pay full attention til 1993.

 

[Indiana Hoosier]

Grew up in Illinois, either a Bear fan or a Card fan. The Priest at Sacred Heart would say after Mass on Sunday's "Go Bears". That would really "Bug" me. 55 years later, am and always will be a "long suffering" Cardinal fan.

 

[NYCARDS]

Im born, raised and live in NY and my dad hated the NY Giants so I chose a team in the division back in the 70s. I liked their uniforms and they at some exciting players; Jim Hart, Mel Gray, Jim Otis, Conrad Dobler, Terry Metcalf- that was a fun team to watch.

 

[TruColor]

Grew up in Illinois, either a Bear fan or a Card fan. The Priest at Sacred Heart would say after Mass on Sunday's "Go Bears". That would really "Bug" me. 55 years later, am and always will be a "long suffering" Cardinal fan.

Somewhat little-known fact: Al Capone was a big Cardinals fan back in the day, and attended most home games.

 

[john h]

I did when I was 5 or 6 and I went to the Cardinals-Oilers game. I was rooting for the Oilers and my dad taught me the importance of rooting for the home team. So I just stuck with them until now, but my dad is no longer a fan, at least not a very good one.

In 1944 I was 12 years old and moved to Chicago from North Carolina. First NFL game I ever saw was Bears against Cards and I think it was in Wrigley Field. Became a Card fan that day and never looked back even though I was living on the North Side which is Bear territory.

 

[Pariah]

So How Did You Guys Become Cardinals Fans?

I lost a bet.

 

[Indiana Hoosier]

FrustedFan, no it was Sterling, IL. Think it would have been 3rd St and Avenue B. Yes, Al Capone was a Big Chicago Cardinal fan. He ruled the South Side. 1st Cardinal game I went to was with my Dad Cardinals-Redskins, South Side, these kids came up to my Dad and said mister watch your car for $2.00 bucks, was there ever a question. Cards lost but played great, they had Ollie Matson at that time, he did everything but drive the team bus.

 

[Savage58]

It was either this or chopping my penis off, time will tell if I made the right decision.

 

[john h]

FrustedFan, no it was Sterling, IL. Think it would have been 3rd St and Avenue B. Yes, Al Capone was a Big Chicago Cardinal fan. He ruled the South Side. 1st Cardinal game I went to was with my Dad Cardinals-Redskins, South Side, these kids came up to my Dad and said mister watch your car for $2.00 bucks, was there ever a question. Cards lost but played great, they had Ollie Matson at that time, he did everything but drive the team bus.

My last view of Ollie Matson was when I was living in N.J. The Cards were playing the Eagles at old Veterans Stadium. Olie took a handoff around his own 20 into the line. It was all clogged up and he bounced to the outside for 80+ yards. I could not yell to much as Eagle fans would kick your ass then and now.

 

[john h]

FrustedFan, no it was Sterling, IL. Think it would have been 3rd St and Avenue B. Yes, Al Capone was a Big Chicago Cardinal fan. He ruled the South Side. 1st Cardinal game I went to was with my Dad Cardinals-Redskins, South Side, these kids came up to my Dad and said mister watch your car for $2.00 bucks, was there ever a question. Cards lost but played great, they had Ollie Matson at that time, he did everything but drive the team bus.

My last view of Ollie Matson was when I was living in N.J. The Cards were playing the Eagles at old Veterans Stadium. Olie took a handoff around his own 20 into the line. It was all clogged up and he bounced to the outside for 80+ yards. I could not yell to much as Eagle fans would kick your ass then and now.

 

[Lomax to Green 84]

I've been a Cards fan since 1979. I can still remember that blasted day as clear as if it was yesterday. Up until that fateful day, I was a fan of the Steelers (had a Steelers lunchbox!!!). Then my damn dad had to go and get me a copy of the Sporting News that had OJ Anderson running for a touchdown on the cover and I have been hooked ever since.

As much as I love the current crop of Cardinals, the 1984 Cardinals will always be my alltime favorite team. Lomax, Green, Anderson, EJ Junior, Stump Mitchell, Pat Tilley, David Galloway, Al Bubba Baker, Lionel Washington.

 

[conraddobler]

Since the days of Hart, Metcalf, Mel Gray, Jim Otis and Dierdorf and my namesake et al.

I've only actually watched two playoff games in my lifetime, the Cowboys and Cardinals and the Vikings and Cardinals, the Rams game, I sat in my dads truck while we visited relatives and listened to it on AM radio, and cried.

I was only like 7 or 8 then so it was ok to cry, now I throw things.

 

[DecaturStaley]

Try

I just started slowly liking them when they came here and by the time we got season tickets in '93 I was rabid.

I think this is a total addiction.....I couldn't stop if I wanted to.

...heroin instead. Better for your health.