The Arizona Cardinals are the oldest continuously operating professional football franchise in the United States, but that phrase can mislead if it is treated like a museum label instead of a historical burden. The Cardinals are not merely old. They are old in a way that exposes the entire evolution of professional football: neighborhood athletic clubs, rented baseball parks, the birth of the NFL, city rivalry, racial integration, Depression-era instability, war-year improvisation, television’s arrival, franchise relocation, suburban stadium politics, and the modern search for a permanent identity in the desert. Their story begins on Chicago’s South Side in the nineteenth century and stretches through St. Louis, Phoenix, Tempe, Glendale, and the current Arizona era. It is one of the most important histories in pro football, not because the Cardinals have won constantly, but because they have survived almost everything.
Any serious account of the Cardinals must begin with the work of Joe Ziemba. Ziemba’s When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL remains indispensable because it takes seriously the Chicago Cardinals as a subject in their own right rather than treating them as a prologue to the Arizona franchise. Ziemba’s research emphasizes the Cardinals’ local, neighborhood, and working-class Chicago roots, and his work is particularly important because the franchise’s early history is often mangled in short summaries. The modern Cardinals trace their line to Chris O’Brien’s Morgan Athletic Club, formed on Chicago’s South Side in 1898. The team later became associated with Normal Park on Racine Avenue and was called the Racine Cardinals, not because of the city of Racine, Wisconsin, but because of Racine Avenue in Chicago. The name “Cardinals” originally referred not to a bird but to the faded cardinal-red color of second-hand University of Chicago jerseys that O’Brien purchased for the team.[1]
That origin matters because it places the Cardinals in the world from which professional football emerged: neighborhood clubs, ethnic and working-class communities, industrial cities, baseball parks, rail travel, and informal scheduling. Professional football did not arrive fully formed from league offices and television contracts. It came from teams such as the Cardinals, the Decatur Staleys, the Canton Bulldogs, the Akron Pros, the Dayton Triangles, and others that mixed local pride with increasingly professionalized competition. When the American Professional Football Association was organized in 1920 and renamed the National Football League in 1922, the Cardinals were there near the beginning. The Pro Football Hall of Fame notes that the Cardinals trace their history to 1898 and were a charter member of the NFL. Along with the Chicago Bears, they are one of the only charter-era NFL franchises still operating today.[2]
The Bears must be part of the Cardinals story because the Cardinals never played in Chicago alone. The team’s history cannot be understood without George Halas’ Bears, first as the Decatur Staleys, then the Chicago Staleys, then the Chicago Bears. In many histories, the Bears become the clean Chicago football narrative: Halas, Red Grange, Wrigley Field, championships, Bronko Nagurski, Sid Luckman, George McAfee, Bulldog Turner, Bill George, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, and so on. The Cardinals were always the other Chicago team, older in origin but usually weaker in money, attendance, press attention, and political weight. The Bears’ success did not merely outshine the Cardinals; it helped define the Cardinals’ Chicago identity as one of struggle under the shadow of a more glamorous neighbor.
That shadow became especially important after Red Grange signed with the Bears in 1925. The Pro Football Hall of Fame’s own historical timeline notes that Grange’s first Bears appearance against the Cardinals at Wrigley Field on Thanksgiving Day 1925 drew 36,000 fans, then the largest crowd in pro football history. That game was not merely a Bears moment. It was also a Cardinals moment because it showed how the Bears, through Halas’ promotional instincts and Grange’s celebrity, were helping turn pro football into a mass-attendance spectacle while the Cardinals were caught in the same city trying to hold their own. Chicago football was not a level marketplace. It was a duel in which one team had the stronger sword and the louder herald.[3]
The Cardinals’ 1925 championship remains one of the most disputed titles in NFL history. The league awarded the championship to the Cardinals after they finished with the best official league record, but controversy surrounded the finish because of the Pottsville Maroons. Pottsville defeated the Cardinals late in the season, but the Maroons were suspended after playing an unauthorized exhibition game in Philadelphia against Notre Dame all-stars, which the league said infringed on the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellow Jackets. The Cardinals then played additional games, including one against a weak Milwaukee team, and were recognized as champions. Cardinals ownership later did not always embrace the title with triumphal certainty, and historians have debated the episode for nearly a century. Still, in the official NFL record book, the Cardinals won the 1925 NFL championship.[4]
The 1920s and 1930s were unstable for the Cardinals. Chris O’Brien sold the club in 1929 to Dr. David Jones, and in 1932 the team passed into the hands of Charles W. Bidwill, a Chicago lawyer, businessman, racetrack owner, and sports figure whose family would become synonymous with the franchise. Bidwill’s acquisition is one of the most important moments in Cardinals history because it began the long Bidwill family stewardship that continues under Michael Bidwill. Charles Bidwill’s relationship with George Halas also adds texture to the Bears-Cardinals story. Bidwill had been connected to the Bears financially and socially, but he acquired the Cardinals and chose to take control of Chicago’s struggling second NFL franchise rather than remain merely adjacent to Halas’ more successful team.[5]
The Cardinals’ stadium history in Chicago is essential because the club’s instability can be read through its homes. They played at Normal Park early, then Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field, back to Comiskey, and briefly Soldier Field before leaving the city. Comiskey Park, home of the White Sox, was the Cardinals’ main home for much of their Chicago NFL life, including the 1947 championship season. But the 1930s Wrigley Field period is especially important and too often overlooked. Pro Football Reference’s stadium records list Wrigley Field as hosting the Chicago Cardinals from 1931 through 1939, while Comiskey Park hosted the Cardinals across multiple earlier and later periods. This matters because Wrigley Field is popularly remembered as Bears territory in football history, but for most of the 1930s it was also the Cardinals’ home.[6]
That Wrigley chapter complicates the way Chicago football is remembered. The Bears are so strongly associated with Wrigley Field from 1921 through 1970 that the Cardinals’ years there can disappear into the ivy. But the Cardinals’ use of Wrigley in the 1930s put them in the same iconic North Side ballpark that helped shape the Bears’ own mythology. It also placed them in a baseball-first urban landscape where NFL teams often lived as tenants under baseball schedules, baseball sightlines, baseball owners, and baseball economics. The Cardinals were not yet a stadium-owning or stadium-defining franchise. They were renters in a city where baseball buildings and the Bears’ popularity set the terms of survival.
The Cardinals were also part of the NFL’s early racial history, most notably through Duke Slater. Slater, one of the greatest linemen of the early professional era and one of the first Black stars in the NFL, played for the Chicago Cardinals from 1926 through 1931 after beginning his pro career with the Rock Island Independents. His presence is historically significant because the NFL’s early integration history was uneven and later regressed into an informal color barrier from the mid-1930s until 1946. Slater’s Hall of Fame recognition in the Centennial Class helped restore a figure too long neglected. For the Cardinals, Slater is a reminder that their early history intersects not only with league formation, but also with race, exclusion, and memory.[7]
The Cardinals’ fortunes declined badly during the Depression years and into the war period. The team was often financially strained, overshadowed locally, and competitively poor. The nadir came during World War II, when player shortages forced unusual arrangements across the league. In 1944, the Cardinals temporarily merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers to form Card-Pitt, a combined team so bad it went 0-10 and became known derisively as the “Car-Pitts,” because opponents ran over them. That season belongs to the grim comedy wing of NFL history, but it also reveals the fragility of the wartime league. Today’s NFL is a financial colossus. The wartime Cardinals were simply trying to field a team.[8]
The postwar turnaround was sudden and real. Charles Bidwill aggressively assembled talent, including the famed “Dream Backfield” of Paul Christman, Charley Trippi, Elmer Angsman, and Pat Harder. Bidwill signed Trippi, one of the great college stars of the era from Georgia, beating rival leagues and teams to a player who could run, pass, catch, punt, and return. But Bidwill died in April 1947, before seeing the championship team he had helped build. His widow, Violet Bidwill, inherited control, making her one of the most important women in early NFL ownership history. Under coach Jimmy Conzelman, the 1947 Cardinals went 9-3, defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 28-21 at Comiskey Park in the NFL Championship Game, and won the franchise’s last league championship to date.[9]
The 1947 championship should not be treated as ancient trivia. It was the Cardinals’ best Chicago moment and the high point of their entire pre-Arizona existence. The title game against the Eagles included two long touchdown runs by Elmer Angsman and a 44-yard touchdown by Trippi, and it gave the Cardinals a legitimate claim to being one of the NFL’s elite teams at the exact moment the league was entering a new media age. The irony is that the Cardinals won their last championship just as pro football was beginning to become something larger, more televised, and more nationally marketable. They reached the summit at the edge of the television century, then spent decades trying to get back.
Television enters the Cardinals story sharply in 1948. The Cardinals returned to the NFL Championship Game, again against the Eagles, but lost 7-0 in a blizzard at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. The 1948 title game is widely identified as the first NFL Championship Game to be televised, carried by ABC. This detail matters enormously. The Cardinals were not merely playing for another championship; they were present at the threshold of televised championship football. Yet the game itself was a miserable, snow-choked loss, and it became the Cardinals’ last championship-game appearance until Super Bowl XLIII after the 2008 season. Symbolically, the team was on television as pro football’s future opened, but the franchise itself was about to drift into decades of obscurity.[10]
Television also influenced the 1960 move to St. Louis. By the late 1950s, the Cardinals were in trouble in Chicago. They were losing, poorly attended, and overshadowed by the Bears. The Bears had a more powerful identity, stronger support, and a better claim on the city’s growing television football audience. The Cardinals were a second team in a one-team NFL town, and the league had reasons to prefer a cleaner television map. The Pro Football Hall of Fame has noted, in connection with the 1960 move, that Cardinals management spoke of “pressure to open up Chicago for TV.” That phrase is crucial. The move was not simply about attendance or local pride. It was about the television-era NFL understanding that exclusive markets, broadcast clarity, and territorial control were becoming central to the league’s future.[11]
The move to St. Louis in 1960 made the Cardinals the NFL’s first major modern relocation in a pattern that would later reshape the league. St. Louis already had a beloved Major League Baseball team called the Cardinals, so the NFL club became known informally as the “Football Cardinals,” “Big Red,” or “Gridbirds.” This was not an ideal branding situation, but St. Louis gave the franchise something it had lacked in Chicago: a market of its own within the NFL. The move also helped the NFL block potential AFL expansion or influence in St. Louis at the same moment the AFL was beginning play. In that sense, the Cardinals’ relocation was part of the NFL-AFL war as well as a local franchise survival decision.[12]
The St. Louis Cardinals had talent quickly. Quarterback Charley Johnson, running back John David Crow, receiver Sonny Randle, tight end Jackie Smith, defensive back Larry Wilson, and later quarterback Jim Hart gave the team real football substance. Larry Wilson became the greatest player of the St. Louis era and one of the greatest safeties in NFL history. Drafted in 1960, Wilson became famous for the safety blitz, played with ferocity, and once intercepted a pass with both hands in casts. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and remains one of the franchise’s inner-circle greats. If the Cardinals’ St. Louis years often lacked postseason success, they did not lack great players.[13]
Joe Namath belongs in the story of the St. Louis Cardinals because his decision helped shape the franchise’s quarterback destiny and, by extension, its competitive ceiling. In the 1965 drafts, the NFL Cardinals selected Namath with the 12th overall pick, while the AFL’s New York Jets selected him first overall. Namath chose the Jets, signing a landmark contract that made him the face of the AFL. For St. Louis, losing Namath was not simply missing a famous player. It was missing the kind of charismatic franchise quarterback who could have transformed a talented but inconsistent club. Namath later guaranteed and won Super Bowl III, giving the AFL its greatest legitimacy victory. The Cardinals, meanwhile, spent the later 1960s and 1970s often good enough to tease but not good enough to break through.[14]
It is important not to overstate the Namath counterfactual. Jim Hart, who became the Cardinals’ long-term quarterback, was a very good player and one of the most important figures in franchise history. Hart threw for more than 34,000 yards in his career and helped lead the team’s best St. Louis regular-season stretch. But Namath represented a different kind of force: glamour, national television appeal, AFL-NFL symbolic power, and a willingness to become the center of a league’s mythology. St. Louis had the baseball Cardinals, Busch Stadium, and a football team trying to carve out space in a baseball city. Namath might have changed not just the offense, but the franchise’s place in the national conversation. Instead, he became Broadway Joe, and the Football Cardinals remained Big Red: tough, talented, and too often underseen.
The St. Louis Cardinals’ best sustained run came under head coach Don Coryell in the mid-1970s. Coryell, later famous for “Air Coryell” with the San Diego Chargers, brought offensive imagination to St. Louis. With Jim Hart at quarterback, Terry Metcalf as a dynamic multipurpose back, Mel Gray stretching the field, Jackie Smith at tight end, and an excellent offensive line led by Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler, and Tom Banks, the Cardinals became one of the NFL’s most exciting teams. They went 10-4 in 1974 and 11-3 in 1975, winning back-to-back NFC East titles. For a franchise long associated with losing and invisibility, Coryell’s Cardinals were fast, clever, and dangerous.[15]
Yet the Coryell-era Cardinals did not win a playoff game. In 1974, they lost to the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round. In 1975, they lost at home to the Los Angeles Rams. Those losses have aged painfully because the team’s offense was ahead of its time, and its line was among the league’s best. The Cardinals had Hall of Fame-level talent in Dierdorf, future Hall of Fame tight end Jackie Smith, Hart’s steady quarterbacking, Metcalf’s electricity, and Coryell’s mind. But the NFC was unforgiving, and the Cardinals’ defense and postseason execution were not enough. Their most stylish St. Louis team became another Cardinals almost.
The late 1970s and early 1980s brought decline, despite individual excellence. Dierdorf became a Hall of Fame tackle and one of the franchise’s great linemen. Jackie Smith became a Hall of Fame tight end, though many casual fans remember him unfairly for dropping a pass in Super Bowl XIII with the Dallas Cowboys rather than for his brilliant Cardinals career. Ottis Anderson, drafted in 1979, became the franchise’s next great running back and won Offensive Rookie of the Year. Anderson rushed for 1,605 yards as a rookie and later became one of the most important players of the final St. Louis years before winning a Super Bowl MVP with the New York Giants after leaving the Cardinals.[16]
The 1982 Cardinals, coached by Jim Hanifan and led by quarterback Neil Lomax, made the playoffs during the strike-shortened season but lost to the Green Bay Packers. The 1984 team went 9-7 and came within a final-week loss of winning the NFC East. Neil O’Donoghue missed a potential game-winning field goal against Washington in the season finale, and the Cardinals missed the playoffs. That game stands as one of the defining late St. Louis heartbreaks. The team had Lomax, Roy Green, Anderson, Stump Mitchell, and enough offensive talent to matter, but once again the Cardinals were close to a door that did not open.[17]
Stadium politics and ownership dissatisfaction eventually pushed the franchise out of St. Louis. The Cardinals played at Busch Memorial Stadium, a baseball-first multipurpose venue they shared with the baseball Cardinals. Bill Bidwill wanted a new football stadium and better revenue opportunities. When the St. Louis market did not produce the deal he wanted, he moved the team to Arizona after the 1987 season. The move was bitter for St. Louis, though the city later received the Rams in 1995 before losing them to Los Angeles in 2016. For the Cardinals, the move to Arizona was another attempt to find what they had lacked in Chicago and only partially found in St. Louis: a home where they could be the primary NFL identity.[18]
The team played its first Arizona seasons as the Phoenix Cardinals at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, beginning in 1988. The desert move did not produce immediate success. The Cardinals struggled on the field, played in a college stadium not designed for NFL revenue, and often seemed like visitors in their own market. Arizona had many transplants with loyalties to other NFL teams, and the Cardinals had to build a fan base while losing regularly. In 1994, the franchise changed its name from Phoenix Cardinals to Arizona Cardinals, a broader state identity that better matched the market and avoided limiting the team to the city of Phoenix. But a name change did not solve the football problem.[19]
The first major Arizona breakthrough came in 1998 under head coach Vince Tobin. Quarterback Jake Plummer, running back Adrian Murrell, receiver Frank Sanders, cornerback Aeneas Williams, safety Pat Tillman, and others helped the Cardinals go 9-7 and make the playoffs for the first time since 1982. In the wild-card round, Arizona defeated the Dallas Cowboys 20-7 at Texas Stadium. That win was the franchise’s first postseason victory since the 1947 NFL Championship Game. The gap was staggering: more than half a century between playoff wins. For Cardinals fans, the victory in Dallas was not just an upset. It was the sound of a historical lock finally breaking.[20]
Aeneas Williams was the greatest player of the early Arizona period. Drafted in the third round in 1991 out of Southern University, Williams became one of the best cornerbacks of the 1990s and later a superb safety with the St. Louis Rams. He intercepted 55 passes in his career, scored defensive touchdowns, and was eventually inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Williams played on many poor Cardinals teams, which muted his national profile, but serious football observers knew. He was not merely the best player on bad teams. He was one of the best defensive backs in the league.[21]
Pat Tillman’s place in Cardinals history is unique and should be handled carefully. Tillman was an undersized but intense safety who left the NFL after the September 11 attacks to enlist in the U.S. Army with his brother Kevin. He was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004. Tillman’s story has often been simplified into patriotic iconography, but the real person was more complex: thoughtful, skeptical, committed, and private. For the Cardinals, he represents a rare figure whose significance extends far beyond football. His No. 40 was retired by the team, and his memory remains deeply tied to Arizona sports identity.[22]
The franchise’s stadium situation changed dramatically in 2006, when the Cardinals moved into their new retractable-roof stadium in Glendale, now State Farm Stadium. That move cannot be overstated. Sun Devil Stadium had been hot, college-owned, and financially limiting. The Glendale stadium gave the Cardinals modern revenue, an NFL-quality game-day environment, and a venue capable of hosting Super Bowls and major events. It was the infrastructure the franchise had been chasing across three cities. For perhaps the first time in their modern history, the Cardinals had a home built for them.[23]
The new stadium era soon produced the greatest season in Arizona Cardinals history. Under head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the 2008 Cardinals went 9-7, won the NFC West, and entered the playoffs as a dangerous but doubted team. Their offense was built around veteran quarterback Kurt Warner, wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, slot receiver Steve Breaston, and running back Edgerrin James. The defense, with players such as Adrian Wilson, Karlos Dansby, Darnell Dockett, Antrel Rolle, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, was inconsistent in the regular season but opportunistic in January. The Cardinals defeated Atlanta, Carolina, and Philadelphia to reach the franchise’s first Super Bowl.[24]
The 2008 NFC Championship Game against the Philadelphia Eagles was one of the great days in franchise history. Fitzgerald caught three touchdown passes in the first half, and the Cardinals held off an Eagles comeback to win 32-25. The victory carried historical symmetry because the Cardinals’ last championship-game appearance had been the 1948 NFL Championship Game loss to Philadelphia. Sixty years later, the Cardinals beat the Eagles to reach the Super Bowl. History does not often write clean rhymes, but that one was hard to miss.
Super Bowl XLIII against the Pittsburgh Steelers became the Cardinals’ greatest heartbreak and one of the best Super Bowls ever played. Arizona trailed 20-7, rallied behind Warner and Fitzgerald, and took a 23-20 lead when Fitzgerald split the Steelers defense for a 64-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Then Ben Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh downfield, and Santonio Holmes made a toe-tap touchdown catch in the corner of the end zone to win 27-23. James Harrison’s 100-yard interception return at the end of the first half remains one of the most important plays in Super Bowl history. The Cardinals were minutes from their first championship since 1947. They left with the most beautiful loss in franchise history.[25]
Larry Fitzgerald became the greatest Arizona Cardinal and arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Drafted third overall in 2004, Fitzgerald played his entire career with the Cardinals and retired second in NFL history in receptions and receiving yards behind Jerry Rice. His 2008 postseason was one of the greatest playoff runs ever by a receiver: 30 catches, 546 yards, and seven touchdowns. Fitzgerald was more than a statistical giant. He was the public face of the franchise: loyal, durable, precise, gracious, and competitive. His selection to the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 gave the Cardinals a modern Canton figure whose identity belongs overwhelmingly to Arizona.[26]
Anquan Boldin deserves his own recognition. Drafted in the second round in 2003, Boldin had one of the greatest rookie receiving seasons in NFL history, catching 101 passes for 1,377 yards. He was not as fast or elegant as Fitzgerald, but he was brutally strong, fearless over the middle, and one of the toughest receivers of his era. The Fitzgerald-Boldin pairing gave Arizona its first truly elite modern offensive identity. For a franchise long defined by instability, those two receivers made the Cardinals feel dangerous even before the team fully learned how to win.[27]
The post-Super Bowl Whisenhunt era produced one more playoff run after the 2009 season, including a wild 51-45 overtime win over the Green Bay Packers, but Warner retired after that season and the quarterback position collapsed. The Cardinals cycled through Derek Anderson, John Skelton, Kevin Kolb, Ryan Lindley, Brian Hoyer, and others before finding stability again under Bruce Arians. The lesson was old but still sharp: for all the romance of franchise history, modern NFL success usually begins with quarterback competence. Without Warner, the Cardinals quickly lost altitude.[28]
Bruce Arians arrived as head coach in 2013 and immediately gave the Cardinals a new personality. Arians was aggressive, witty, direct, and offensively ambitious. With general manager Steve Keim, quarterback Carson Palmer, wide receiver Fitzgerald, running back Andre Ellington and later David Johnson, and a defense led by Patrick Peterson, Calais Campbell, Tyrann Mathieu, Daryl Washington, and others, the Cardinals became one of the NFC’s best teams. They went 10-6 in 2013 and missed the playoffs, 11-5 in 2014 despite major quarterback injuries, and 13-3 in 2015. Arians gave the Cardinals swagger, and for a brief period the franchise looked fully modern.[29]
The 2015 Cardinals were one of the best teams in franchise history. Palmer threw for 4,671 yards and 35 touchdowns, Fitzgerald reinvented himself as a devastating slot receiver, David Johnson emerged late, and the defense was fast and versatile. Arizona defeated Green Bay in overtime in the divisional round after a miraculous Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary forced overtime, followed by Fitzgerald’s spectacular catch-and-run and shovel-pass touchdown. The Cardinals then lost 49-15 to the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Championship Game. That defeat was jarring because the team had looked Super Bowl-caliber. Another Cardinals peak ended one game short.[30]
Patrick Peterson and Calais Campbell were defining defensive figures of the Arians era. Peterson, drafted fifth overall in 2011, became an elite cornerback and returner, earning multiple Pro Bowl selections and first-team All-Pro recognition early in his career. Campbell, drafted in 2008, became one of the league’s best defensive linemen, combining length, power, intelligence, and leadership. Both later continued their careers elsewhere, but their Arizona years helped give the Cardinals a defensive identity worthy of the offense. The franchise’s best modern teams have usually had a balance of star receivers and defensive playmakers. The Arians Cardinals had both.[31]
Tyrann Mathieu was the emotional spark of the Arians defense. Drafted in the third round in 2013 after off-field issues at LSU, Mathieu became one of the NFL’s most instinctive defensive backs. His 2015 season was extraordinary before a late ACL injury, and his versatility allowed Arizona to blur safety, nickel, linebacker, and slot responsibilities. Mathieu later won a Super Bowl with Kansas City, but his Cardinals years remain central to his career story. He gave Arizona something it had rarely had in abundance: defensive chaos that felt joyful.
The Cardinals reset again after Arians and Palmer retired following the 2017 season. Steve Wilks lasted one disastrous year as head coach in 2018, and quarterback Josh Rosen, drafted tenth overall that same year, did not become the answer. In 2019, Arizona hired Kliff Kingsbury and drafted Kyler Murray first overall, only a year after drafting Rosen. The decision was bold and ruthless. Murray, a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma and former baseball first-round pick, brought rare speed, arm talent, and improvisational ability. The Cardinals were betting that modern offense required a different kind of quarterback and a coach willing to spread the field.[32]
The Kingsbury-Murray era was exciting but unstable. Murray won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2019, and the Cardinals improved from 5-10-1 in 2019 to 8-8 in 2020. The 2021 team started 7-0, finished 11-6, and made the playoffs, but a late-season fade and a poor wild-card loss to the Los Angeles Rams raised questions about durability, structure, and adjustment. The offense could look electric when Murray was healthy and in rhythm, especially after the team acquired DeAndre Hopkins in 2020. But the same team could look scattered when defenses forced it into patience. The Cardinals had found a star quarterback, but not yet a complete program.[33]
The 2022 season imploded. Hopkins was suspended for the first six games, injuries mounted, Murray tore his ACL in December, and the Cardinals finished 4-13. Kingsbury was fired, and Keim stepped away. Monti Ossenfort became general manager, and Jonathan Gannon was hired as head coach in 2023. The new regime inherited a roster in transition and a quarterback recovering from major injury. The 2023 Cardinals went 4-13, but Murray returned late in the year, and the team showed enough competitiveness to suggest a longer rebuild might be possible. In 2024, Arizona improved to 8-9, aided by the drafting of Marvin Harrison Jr. fourth overall and the development of tight end Trey McBride.[34]
The optimism did not last. The 2025 Cardinals collapsed to 3-14, the worst record in the league’s modern Arizona period and one of the worst in franchise history. Pro Football Reference lists the team as finishing fourth in the NFC West, scoring 355 points and allowing 488. Gannon was fired after the season with a 15-36 record over three years. In February 2026, Arizona hired Mike LaFleur, previously the Los Angeles Rams offensive coordinator, as head coach on a five-year contract. The official Cardinals site notes that LaFleur became an NFL head coach when he was hired on February 2, 2026. The new era opened with major questions about quarterback direction, offensive structure, and whether the franchise could finally escape its cycle of brief peaks and long corrections.[35]
The 2026 quarterback question was particularly important because Murray’s future had become uncertain. Reuters reported in February 2026 that LaFleur had no set timetable for deciding Murray’s future, noting Murray’s injury-shortened 2025 season, his guarantees, and the possibility that Jacoby Brissett could be part of the team’s plans. This is a familiar Cardinals theme in modern form: the franchise has often had enough talent to imagine a better future, but not enough quarterback stability, roster depth, or organizational continuity to make that future durable. The LaFleur hire signaled a desire to import structure from the McVay/Shanahan offensive ecosystem. Whether that becomes substance or another mirage is the current question.[36]
The Cardinals’ all-time ledger is sobering. Pro Football Reference lists the franchise through 2026 at 107 seasons, a 596-826-41 regular-season record, an 8-11 playoff record, no Super Bowl wins, one Super Bowl appearance, and two official league championships. Those numbers are almost shocking when placed beside the franchise’s age. The Cardinals are older than nearly everyone, yet they have far fewer championships than many younger organizations. Their record book is a long tale of survival without sustained dominance. Jim Hart remains the franchise’s all-time passing leader. Ottis Anderson leads in rushing. Larry Fitzgerald leads in receptions, receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, and all major receiving memory.[37]
That combination makes the Cardinals historically unique. The Bears, Packers, Giants, Steelers, 49ers, Cowboys, and other older or storied franchises often connect age with championships. The Cardinals connect age with endurance. They have been in Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix, and Arizona. They have played at Normal Park, Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, Busch Stadium, Sun Devil Stadium, and State Farm Stadium. They have been neighborhood club, charter NFL member, second team in Chicago, St. Louis transplant, desert tenant, Super Bowl finalist, and modern rebuilding project. Their continuity is itself an achievement, but it is not a substitute for winning. That tension defines the franchise.
The Hall of Fame story is similarly layered. Cardinals-associated Hall of Famers include early figures such as Duke Slater, Ernie Nevers, Paddy Driscoll, Jimmy Conzelman, Charley Trippi, and later stars such as Ollie Matson, Larry Wilson, Jackie Smith, Dan Dierdorf, Aeneas Williams, Kurt Warner, and Larry Fitzgerald. But many of those players belong to different cities, different football worlds, and different degrees of Cardinals identity. Fitzgerald is the cleanest modern Arizona icon. Larry Wilson is the St. Louis defensive standard. Trippi is the Chicago championship symbol. Aeneas Williams bridges the desert struggle and Canton excellence. The franchise’s Hall of Fame lineage is real, but dispersed across geography like a team that kept moving before it could build monuments in one place.[38]
The Cardinals’ rivalry history begins with the Bears, whether the modern schedule remembers it or not. Cardinals-Bears is one of the oldest possible matchups in professional football, rooted in Chicago and the NFL’s beginning. It is not a modern hatred in the way Bears-Packers is, but historically it matters because the Bears helped push the Cardinals into their identity as Chicago’s lesser-supported team and eventually into relocation. The Bears were not merely an opponent. They were the city’s football gravity. The Cardinals spent decades trying not to be pulled entirely into their shadow.[39]
In St. Louis, the Cardinals’ primary divisional rivalries came through the old NFC East, which included Dallas, Washington, Philadelphia, and the New York Giants. This geography looks strange now, but it shaped St. Louis football life. The Cardinals had many painful games against Dallas and Washington in particular, including the 1984 finale against Washington that cost them a division title. In Arizona, the NFC West eventually produced rivalries with the Rams, 49ers, and Seahawks. The Rams rivalry has special resonance because the Rams later moved to St. Louis, won a Super Bowl there, then left, making St. Louis a city twice wounded by NFL relocation. Cardinals history and Rams history overlap in St. Louis like two ghosts arguing over the same address.[40]
The Cardinals’ relationship with television deserves a final emphasis because it appears at multiple turning points. Television was there at the 1948 championship loss, one of the first times the NFL title game reached viewers through the new medium. Television was there in the logic of the 1960 move, when opening Chicago for the Bears and creating a cleaner St. Louis market fit the league’s broadcast-age ambitions. Television was there again in the Super Bowl era, when the 2008 Cardinals, long ignored, became a national story through Warner, Fitzgerald, and one of the most dramatic Super Bowls ever. For the Cardinals, television has been both witness and judge. It showed them losing in the snow, helped push them out of Chicago, and later made their greatest modern team unforgettable.
The Cardinals matter because they force historians to resist simple winner-centered storytelling. If one writes only about dynasties, the Cardinals become a punchline. If one writes about professional football as a living institution, the Cardinals become essential. They show how teams survived before television money, before stadium palaces, before national fantasy football audiences, before luxury suites and global branding. They show how one franchise could be older than the league’s mythology and still spend most of its life searching for a stable place in it.
Joe Ziemba’s work is valuable precisely because it asks us to look back at the Chicago Cardinals without condescension. They were not merely the team that later became Arizona. They were a South Side club, a charter NFL member, a Bears rival, a Wrigley Field tenant, a Comiskey Park champion, a team with Duke Slater, Charley Trippi, Violet Bidwill, and Jimmy Conzelman. The St. Louis Cardinals were not merely a middle chapter either. They were Larry Wilson, Jackie Smith, Jim Hart, Don Coryell, Dan Dierdorf, Terry Metcalf, Ottis Anderson, Neil Lomax, Roy Green, and the unrealized Joe Namath possibility. The Arizona Cardinals are not merely the current brand. They are Fitzgerald’s hands, Warner’s redemption, Pat Tillman’s memory, Aeneas Williams’ excellence, Arians’ swagger, Murray’s volatility, Harrison’s promise, McBride’s emergence, and the LaFleur era’s unanswered questions.
The Cardinals have survived long enough to become a paradox. They are ancient but still unfinished, historically central but competitively frustrated, geographically restless but continuously alive. They are the NFL’s oldest running thread, frayed in places, bright in others, never cut. Their story began with faded red jerseys on Racine Avenue. It has not yet found the championship ending that would make the whole long journey feel complete.
That is why the Cardinals’ history deserves more than a quick summary. It is not a straight march from Chicago to Arizona. It is a wandering American football epic: South Side clubs, Bears rivalry, Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, television, St. Louis ambition, Namath’s road not taken, Coryell’s offense, desert instability, Glendale’s stadium, Fitzgerald’s grace, Warner’s last great miracle, and the present-day question of whether the oldest franchise in pro football can finally become something more than the league’s most persistent survivor.
Footnotes and Sources
[1] Joe Ziemba’s When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL is essential for the early Chicago Cardinals, especially the Morgan Athletic Club, Racine Avenue, and neighborhood-club origins of the franchise. See: Joe Ziemba, When Football Was Football: The Chicago Cardinals and the Birth of the NFL, Robert Pruter review of Ziemba’s book in Journal of Sport History, Good Seats Still Available interview with Joe Ziemba, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History.
[2] The Cardinals trace their origin to 1898 and are the oldest continuously operating professional football franchise, with charter-era NFL roots. See: Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History, NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History, Arizona Cardinals Official History, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, Pro Football Reference.
[3] Red Grange’s 1925 signing with the Bears and the Bears-Cardinals Thanksgiving game at Wrigley Field helped establish pro football’s mass appeal and placed the Cardinals inside the Bears’ growing promotional shadow. See: Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1925 NFL History, Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1931 historical note referencing Grange and Bears-Cardinals at Wrigley, Chicago Bears Franchise Index, Pro Football Reference, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[4] The Cardinals are officially credited with the 1925 NFL championship, though the Pottsville Maroons dispute remains one of the major controversies in early NFL history. See: Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, Pro Football Reference, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History, NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1925 NFL History.
[5] Charles W. Bidwill acquired the Cardinals in the early 1930s, beginning the Bidwill family’s long stewardship of the franchise. See: Arizona Cardinals Official History, Revenge of the Birds, Bidwill ownership history, Part 1, Revenge of the Birds, Bidwill ownership history, Part 3, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History.
[6] The Cardinals’ Chicago stadium history included Normal Park, Comiskey Park, Wrigley Field, and Soldier Field, with Wrigley Field serving as the team’s home from 1931 through 1939 according to Pro Football Reference. See: Wrigley Field History, Pro Football Reference, Comiskey Park History, Pro Football Reference, 1933 Chicago Cardinals Travel Map, Pro Football Reference, and Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs official ballpark history.
[7] Duke Slater played for the Chicago Cardinals and became one of the most important Black players in early NFL history. See: Duke Slater Hall of Fame Profile, Duke Slater Career Statistics, Pro Football Reference, Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, and Joe Ziemba, When Football Was Football.
[8] The 1944 Card-Pitt merger between the Cardinals and Steelers went 0-10 during the wartime player-shortage period. See: 1944 Card-Pitt Statistics, Pro Football Reference, Pittsburgh Steelers Franchise Index, Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1944 NFL History.
[9] Charles Bidwill built the talent base for the 1947 champions but died before the season; Violet Bidwill owned the team when the Cardinals defeated the Eagles for the NFL Championship. See: 1947 Chicago Cardinals Statistics, Pro Football Reference, 1947 NFL Championship Game Box Score, Charley Trippi Hall of Fame Profile, Jimmy Conzelman Hall of Fame Profile, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1947 NFL History.
[10] The 1948 NFL Championship Game between the Cardinals and Eagles was played in a blizzard and is widely identified as the first televised NFL Championship Game. See: 1948 NFL Championship Game Box Score, Pro Football Reference, 1948 NFL Championship Game summary, Bleacher Report, 1948 NFL Championship retrospective, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1948 NFL History.
[11] The Cardinals’ move from Chicago to St. Louis was linked to financial weakness, the Bears’ dominance in Chicago, and television-market logic, including quoted pressure “to open up Chicago for TV.” See: Pro Football Hall of Fame post on Cardinals relocation to St. Louis, The Big Red Zone, Why the Cardinals left Chicago, Thompson Coburn, St. Louis and NFL relocation history, and NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History.
[12] The Cardinals moved to St. Louis in 1960, where they became known as the Football Cardinals, Big Red, or Gridbirds to distinguish them from baseball’s Cardinals. See: NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History, Thompson Coburn, St. Louis and NFL relocation history, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[13] Larry Wilson became the defining defensive player of the St. Louis Cardinals era and one of the greatest safeties in NFL history. See: Larry Wilson Hall of Fame Profile, Larry Wilson Career Statistics, Pro Football Reference, 1960 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[14] The St. Louis Cardinals selected Joe Namath in the 1965 NFL Draft, while the AFL’s New York Jets selected him first overall; Namath chose the Jets. See: 1965 NFL Draft, Pro Football Reference, 1965 AFL Draft, Pro Football Reference, Joe Namath Hall of Fame Profile, Joe Namath Career Statistics, and Super Bowl III Summary.
[15] Don Coryell’s mid-1970s St. Louis Cardinals won NFC East titles in 1974 and 1975 behind Jim Hart, Terry Metcalf, Mel Gray, Jackie Smith, Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler, and Tom Banks. See: Don Coryell Hall of Fame Profile, 1974 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, 1975 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, Jim Hart Career Statistics, and Dan Dierdorf Hall of Fame Profile.
[16] Jackie Smith, Dan Dierdorf, and Ottis Anderson were among the major stars of the St. Louis Cardinals era. See: Jackie Smith Hall of Fame Profile, Dan Dierdorf Hall of Fame Profile, Ottis Anderson Career Statistics, 1979 NFL Awards Voting, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[17] The late St. Louis Cardinals reached the playoffs in the strike-shortened 1982 season and narrowly missed the NFC East title in 1984. See: 1982 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, Cardinals-Packers Playoff Box Score, January 8, 1983, 1984 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, Cardinals-Commanders Box Score, December 16, 1984, and Neil Lomax Career Statistics.
[18] Bill Bidwill moved the Cardinals from St. Louis to Arizona after the 1987 season amid stadium and revenue concerns. See: NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History, Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, and Thompson Coburn, St. Louis relocation history.
[19] The Cardinals began play in Arizona in 1988 as the Phoenix Cardinals at Sun Devil Stadium and became the Arizona Cardinals in 1994. See: 1988 Phoenix Cardinals Statistics, Pro Football Reference, Arizona Cardinals Official History, NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History, and Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team History.
[20] The 1998 Cardinals went 9-7 and defeated Dallas for the franchise’s first postseason victory since 1947. See: 1998 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Cardinals-Cowboys Wild Card Box Score, Arizona Cardinals Playoff History, and Jake Plummer Career Statistics.
[21] Aeneas Williams became the greatest player of the early Arizona period and was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. See: Aeneas Williams Hall of Fame Profile, Aeneas Williams Career Statistics, 1991 NFL Draft, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[22] Pat Tillman left the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army and was killed in Afghanistan in 2004; his No. 40 is retired by the Cardinals. See: Pat Tillman Foundation, Pat Tillman Career Statistics, Pro Football Reference, Arizona Cardinals Ring of Honor, and Arizona Cardinals Official History.
[23] The Cardinals moved into their Glendale retractable-roof stadium in 2006, now State Farm Stadium. See: State Farm Stadium Official Site, Arizona Cardinals Stadium Information, 2006 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, and NFL Operations, Arizona Cardinals Team History.
[24] The 2008 Cardinals went 9-7, won the NFC West, and defeated Atlanta, Carolina, and Philadelphia to reach Super Bowl XLIII. See: 2008 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Falcons-Cardinals Wild Card Box Score, Cardinals-Panthers Divisional Box Score, Eagles-Cardinals NFC Championship Box Score, and Kurt Warner Career Statistics.
[25] Arizona lost Super Bowl XLIII to Pittsburgh, 27-23, after Larry Fitzgerald’s late touchdown and Santonio Holmes’ winning catch. See: Super Bowl XLIII Summary, Pro Football Reference, Super Bowl XLIII Box Score, 2008 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, and Larry Fitzgerald Career Statistics.
[26] Larry Fitzgerald was drafted third overall in 2004, played his entire career with the Cardinals, retired second all-time in receptions and receiving yards, and was elected to the Hall of Fame Class of 2026. See: Larry Fitzgerald Career Statistics, Pro Football Reference, 2004 NFL Draft, Arizona Cardinals Career Receiving Leaders, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team Greats, and Revenge of the Birds, Fitzgerald Hall of Fame candidacy.
[27] Anquan Boldin set a rookie receiving standard in 2003 and formed an elite duo with Fitzgerald. See: Anquan Boldin Career Statistics, Pro Football Reference, 2003 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, 2003 NFL Awards Voting, and Arizona Cardinals Career Receiving Leaders.
[28] The Cardinals won a wild 2009 playoff game over Green Bay after Warner’s final season, then fell into quarterback instability after Warner retired. See: 2009 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Packers-Cardinals Wild Card Box Score, Cardinals-Saints Divisional Box Score, Kurt Warner Career Statistics, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[29] Bruce Arians coached the Cardinals from 2013 through 2017 and led one of the best runs in the Arizona era. See: Bruce Arians Coaching Record, Pro Football Reference, 2013 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, 2014 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, 2015 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Carson Palmer Career Statistics, and Patrick Peterson Career Statistics.
[30] The 2015 Cardinals went 13-3, defeated Green Bay in overtime, and lost to Carolina in the NFC Championship Game. See: 2015 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Packers-Cardinals Divisional Box Score, Cardinals-Panthers NFC Championship Box Score, and Carson Palmer Career Statistics.
[31] Patrick Peterson and Calais Campbell were defining defensive players of the Arians-era Cardinals. See: Patrick Peterson Career Statistics, Calais Campbell Career Statistics, 2011 NFL Draft, 2008 NFL Draft, and Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index.
[32] Arizona drafted Kyler Murray first overall in 2019 after hiring Kliff Kingsbury and moving on from 2018 first-round quarterback Josh Rosen. See: 2019 NFL Draft, Kyler Murray Career Statistics, Kliff Kingsbury Coaching Record, Josh Rosen Career Statistics, and 2019 Arizona Cardinals Statistics.
[33] The Kingsbury-Murray Cardinals improved through 2020 and made the playoffs in 2021, then lost badly to the Rams in the wild-card round. See: 2020 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, 2021 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Cardinals-Rams Wild Card Box Score, DeAndre Hopkins Career Statistics, and Kyler Murray Career Statistics.
[34] The Cardinals fired Kingsbury after the 2022 season, hired Monti Ossenfort and Jonathan Gannon in 2023, and drafted Marvin Harrison Jr. fourth overall in 2024. See: 2022 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Jonathan Gannon Coaching Record, 2023 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, 2024 NFL Draft, Marvin Harrison Jr. Career Statistics, and Arizona Cardinals, Harrison works with Murray in 2024 offseason.
[35] The 2025 Cardinals went 3-14, fired Jonathan Gannon, and hired Mike LaFleur as head coach in February 2026. See: 2025 Arizona Cardinals Statistics, Pro Football Reference, Arizona Cardinals, Cardinals Move On From Jonathan Gannon, Arizona Cardinals, Mike LaFleur coaching profile, NFL.com, Cardinals hire Mike LaFleur, and Reuters, Cardinals name Mike LaFleur head coach.
[36] LaFleur’s arrival brought major quarterback questions involving Kyler Murray and Jacoby Brissett after Murray’s injury-shortened 2025 season. See: Reuters, Mike LaFleur has no timetable on Kyler Murray decision, Arizona Cardinals, Mike LaFleur Felt Right Taking Cardinals Job, Arizona Cardinals Coaches Roster, and 2025 Arizona Cardinals Statistics.
[37] Pro Football Reference lists the Cardinals through 2026 at 107 seasons, a 596-826-41 regular-season record, an 8-11 playoff record, two championships, and one Super Bowl appearance; major franchise leaders include Jim Hart, Ottis Anderson, and Larry Fitzgerald. See: Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, Pro Football Reference, Arizona Cardinals Playoff History, Arizona Cardinals Career Passing Leaders, Arizona Cardinals Career Rushing Leaders, and Arizona Cardinals Career Receiving Leaders.
[38] Cardinals-associated Hall of Famers span the Chicago, St. Louis, and Arizona periods, including Duke Slater, Jimmy Conzelman, Charley Trippi, Larry Wilson, Jackie Smith, Dan Dierdorf, Aeneas Williams, Kurt Warner, and Larry Fitzgerald. See: Pro Football Hall of Fame, Arizona Cardinals Team Greats, Charley Trippi Hall of Fame Profile, Larry Wilson Hall of Fame Profile, Dan Dierdorf Hall of Fame Profile, Aeneas Williams Hall of Fame Profile, and Kurt Warner Hall of Fame Profile.
[39] Cardinals-Bears is one of the oldest pairings in pro football and is central to understanding why the Cardinals struggled for identity in Chicago. See: Chicago Bears Franchise Index, Arizona Cardinals Franchise Index, Pro Football Hall of Fame, 1925 NFL History, Wrigley Field History, Pro Football Reference, and Joe Ziemba, When Football Was Football.
[40] The Cardinals’ rivalry geography shifted from Chicago and the Bears, to the NFC East in St. Louis, to the NFC West in Arizona. See: Arizona Cardinals Head-to-Head Records, Arizona Cardinals Playoff History, 1984 St. Louis Cardinals Statistics, Los Angeles Rams Franchise Index, San Francisco 49ers Franchise Index, and Seattle Seahawks Franchise Index.
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