MadBird
Go Big Red!
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2003
- Posts
- 263
- Reaction score
- 11
Let's face it, St. Louis is still fascinated with the Cardinals ... it's been 17 years since they left, don't you think the St. Louis media would have moved on by now?
I think they are secretly still in love with the "BIG RED" (St. Louis is the only place that really still refers to them in that way) ... The RAMS aren't their
True Love ...
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Cards give game ball to Bidwill
By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
12/19/2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - In the giddy aftermath of the Arizona Cardinals' first win in more than a month, coach Dennis Green handed out a single game ball Sunday. It went to Bill Bidwill, the team's owner and president for more than four decades.
"It was totally unexpected, but I'm very grateful for it," said Bidwill, 73. "This is probably the first game all year we've played 60 minutes of football. I'm proud of the way the team played, and I think everyone in the Valley of the Sun will be, too, when they see the highlights."
Highlights have been hard to compile for the Cardinals since Bidwill moved them here from St. Louis in 1988. In 17 seasons, the Phoenix-Arizona Cardinals have produced only one .500-plus record - 9-7 in 1998. And that trend continues this year: Sunday's 31-7 victory over the Rams, which snapped a four-game losing streak, put the Big Red at 5-9.
Yet in the lackluster NFC, the Cards mathematically remain in the playoff hunt. "We're in a dog fight till the end, and one more loss, that's it," defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said after Arizona limited the Rams to a season-low 185 yards. "Everybody knows it, and everybody's going to give their best effort. ... Tomorrow, we're going to start breaking down Seattle film and get back at it."
But it's a fair assumption that before he looks toward next week's contest against the NFC West-leading Seahawks, Bidwill will savor Sunday's win - even through he played down the significance of beating the team from the town his club called home for 28 seasons. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis from Chicago in 1960.
"There's no personal animosity between the two teams that I'm aware of," Bidwill said, "other than it's a division rival and you want to increase your standing in the division."
Bidwill took his team to the desert after failing to persuade St. Louis officials to provide him with a new stadium; the baseball and football Cardinals shared Busch Stadium then. Ironically, one of the lures Phoenix provided Bidwill was the assurance that the Cardinals would play in Sun Devil Stadium, on the Arizona State campus, only briefly.
But he was stymied in his stadium quest for many years here, too. Finally, construction began in July 2003 on a $370 million, 75,000-seat building that will be completed in time for the 2006 season. It will feature a retractable roof and a movable grass playing surface, which will be positioned outside except on game days, when it will be wheeled inside.
"We'll be the first one in the United States with that," Bidwill said. "It's going to be a pretty good stadium."
One that, Bidwill hopes, will be home to a pretty good team. He said he believes Green has the Cardinals on the right track.
"Dennis has done every single thing that he said he was going to do," Bidwill said.
Reporter Bill Coats
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 314-340-8189
I think they are secretly still in love with the "BIG RED" (St. Louis is the only place that really still refers to them in that way) ... The RAMS aren't their
True Love ...
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cards give game ball to Bidwill
By Bill Coats
Of the Post-Dispatch
12/19/2004
TEMPE, Ariz. - In the giddy aftermath of the Arizona Cardinals' first win in more than a month, coach Dennis Green handed out a single game ball Sunday. It went to Bill Bidwill, the team's owner and president for more than four decades.
"It was totally unexpected, but I'm very grateful for it," said Bidwill, 73. "This is probably the first game all year we've played 60 minutes of football. I'm proud of the way the team played, and I think everyone in the Valley of the Sun will be, too, when they see the highlights."
Highlights have been hard to compile for the Cardinals since Bidwill moved them here from St. Louis in 1988. In 17 seasons, the Phoenix-Arizona Cardinals have produced only one .500-plus record - 9-7 in 1998. And that trend continues this year: Sunday's 31-7 victory over the Rams, which snapped a four-game losing streak, put the Big Red at 5-9.
Yet in the lackluster NFC, the Cards mathematically remain in the playoff hunt. "We're in a dog fight till the end, and one more loss, that's it," defensive tackle Darnell Dockett said after Arizona limited the Rams to a season-low 185 yards. "Everybody knows it, and everybody's going to give their best effort. ... Tomorrow, we're going to start breaking down Seattle film and get back at it."
But it's a fair assumption that before he looks toward next week's contest against the NFC West-leading Seahawks, Bidwill will savor Sunday's win - even through he played down the significance of beating the team from the town his club called home for 28 seasons. The Cardinals moved to St. Louis from Chicago in 1960.
"There's no personal animosity between the two teams that I'm aware of," Bidwill said, "other than it's a division rival and you want to increase your standing in the division."
Bidwill took his team to the desert after failing to persuade St. Louis officials to provide him with a new stadium; the baseball and football Cardinals shared Busch Stadium then. Ironically, one of the lures Phoenix provided Bidwill was the assurance that the Cardinals would play in Sun Devil Stadium, on the Arizona State campus, only briefly.
But he was stymied in his stadium quest for many years here, too. Finally, construction began in July 2003 on a $370 million, 75,000-seat building that will be completed in time for the 2006 season. It will feature a retractable roof and a movable grass playing surface, which will be positioned outside except on game days, when it will be wheeled inside.
"We'll be the first one in the United States with that," Bidwill said. "It's going to be a pretty good stadium."
One that, Bidwill hopes, will be home to a pretty good team. He said he believes Green has the Cardinals on the right track.
"Dennis has done every single thing that he said he was going to do," Bidwill said.
Reporter Bill Coats
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 314-340-8189
In other words, GET OUT TO THE GAME YOU LOSERS!!!! YOU HAVE AN NFL FRANCHISE IN TOWN!!
