The Chris Moeller Archives

Those other Cardinals

This year, out of the ordinary, I have a rooting interest in the Super Bowl. I'm just not sure yet what it is. As a partisan towards the city of St. Louis, everything within, and also a proud Iowan, I'm tickled once more for former Rams QB and Cedar Rapids Regis alum Kurt Warner.

This year's march by Warner into the NFL's biggest game, at the helm of its doormat franchise for the last 60 years, should cement the quarterback's Hall of Fame credentials. The three peak seasons of Warner's career (with the St. Louis Rams from 1999-2001) match that of any quarterback in league history, but what he didn't yet have, after debuting at almost 30 years old, was longevity. Even 7 or 8 more mediocre seasons at the conclusion of that peak would have likely done the trick. But in 2008, after multiple concussions and more substantial time lost to injury and circumstance since his second and seemingly last Super Bowl, he's added a secondary peak to his remarkable career, and if he gives the Arizona Cardinals their first NFL championship since 1947 this coming Sunday, you'll start hearing me call him the greatest quarterback of all-time-- especially if you're along for the ride during one of my increasingly-frequent weekend drinking jags.

But maybe getting back to the Super Bowl is already far enough for both Warner and the Cardinals. Just propelling Big Red into the Big Game tells us all we need to know about the character of Mr. Warner, and I'm not sure that I'm emotionally ready for the transient Gridbirds, who called St. Louis home from 1960 to 1988, to end their championship drought, the second longest in American team sports history. (Behind guess who.)

He looks harmless enough now in that little bolo tie, but 77-year-old Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill exhibited no hesitation two decades ago about abandoning the Gateway City for sunnier skies (quite literally) after he failed in his attempt to fleece Missouri taxpayers of a new stadium. (They were ultimately fleeced anyway several years later.) Bidwill has long been one of the NFL's biggest cheapskates as club owner, and he's taken a comeuppance by having his team go 60 years without even playing for the NFL title. (Before Sunday, their last championship game participation was in '48.) The franchise, dating back to Chicago, has won only one post-season game since '47 (a Wild Card game against Dallas in 1998), and none while in St. Louis.

In fact, one could make the case that Bidwill, son of one of the founders of the league, symbolizes everything that's wrong with sports today, or come to think of it, the world in general. With the day-to-day operations of the club handed to son Michael several years ago, the Bidwills didn't start spending money on their club until they had finally finagled a new stadium. It came from the good people of the state of Arizona. University of Phoenix Stadium opened in 2006 after taxpayers picked up roughly two-thirds of its total construction cost, or $311 million between a state sports authority and the city of Glendale. The Bidwills will get reimbursed for their contribution, thanks to a 20-year naming rights agreement with the for-profit adult educational institution. Forbes Magazine says the franchise is worth $914 million today to the Bidwill family.

Thanks to the wonder of sports, my conscience will ultimately be my guide when I sit down to watch the game on Sunday. I suspect that I'll find that it impossible to deny the human element and not root for the remarkably decent and charitable Warner. His podium proselytizing at the occasion of each championship is always kind of a bring-me-down, but as the christian prophets go, at least he appears to live the principles of his faith, and really, he seems like just a hell of a nice guy.


1/29/09 Afterword: I'm even more conflicted about the Bud Bowl.

1/30/09 Afterword: preferred Springsteen set (that's somewhat realistic): "The Rising"/"Tenth Avenue Freeze-out"/"Born to Run"

posted by CM @ 4:20 PM