Five Signature Moments from Arizona Cardinals History

The Cardinals played in Chicago from 1920 through 1959. The Bears were the Monsters of the Midway for much of that era. The Cardinals, except for a brief surge after World War II, were more like the Little Sisters of Charity. If you desire grainy footage of the Cardinals’ 1947 championship, Too Deep Zone is here for you …

… Otherwise, we can move on to St. Louis, where the Cardinals played from 1960 through 1987. They were the second-most relevant St. Louis Cardinals in America, and their own stadium, for nearly all of that span. 

The St. Louis Cardinals never hosted a playoff game, nor did they win one in three tries. They featured some great players and personalities over the years: Don Coryell, Larry Wilson, Jim Hart, Jackie Smith, Mel Gray, Dan Dierdorf, Conrad Dobler and others. But St. Louis Cardinals "Signature Moments" would require some excavation. Unless I cheated and threw Stan Musial or Ozzie Smith onto the list, such a list would appeal to an exceedingly select audience.

The Cardinals reached Arizona in 1988. They’ve been mostly terrible, with the exception of one charmed season. But at least they aren’t second fiddles in their own city/region anymore. 

The Arizona Cardinals have a quirky, pesky personality. They’re comical screwups who sometimes emerge as ornery spoilers. They’re like flighty siblings who moved to the desert to find themselves, or annoying in-laws who retired to Phoenix for its sunny, monotonous comforts. They do their own silly thing, and they do it so blessedly far away that you rarely have to think about them.

And with that, let’s do our best to select Five Signature Moments from Arizona Cardinals history.

#5: Josh is Our Guy.

Our feelings toward Josh haven't waned or changed. I get that we have the first pick and there are going to be a million scenarios, and over the next three months they are going to come up. But Josh is our guy. – from the Cardinals website, February 12, 2019. 

Josh Rosen's demise as the Arizona Cardinals' starting quarterback began on Feb. 11, 2019.

That's when Kyler Murray – the Cardinals' No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft – publicly announced his intention to play professional football instead of professional baseball.

For months, the Cardinals toyed with Rosen. And Friday night, when the trade to send Rosen to Miami was official, marked the end of a grossly mismanaged situation that botched what could've been a seamless divorce. – John Weinfuss, ESPN, April 28, 2019. 

Josh Rosen was never Kliff Kingsbury’s guy, especially once Kyler Murray was available. No one believed Kingsbury’s assertions, nor the Cardinals media department’s thirsty Tweet. The whole disinformation campaign had that’s not lipstick on my collar, it’s ketchup energy, but less authenticity. Seven years later, fans would have assumed “Josh is Our Guy” was an AI hallucination. But the Cardinals have never needed artificial intelligence to hallucinate.

As you read this, Jacoby Brissett is scowling his way through mandatory minicamp. The Cardinals assumed he would happily “compete” with Gardner Minshew for a starting job, on a backup’s contract, after a 23-touchdown season. No one bothered to check with Brissett. The Cardinals must think their players and fans lack free will, object permanence and common sense. Murray may be the NFL’s most unapologetic video gamer, but owner Michael Bidwill and the decision makers he hires are the ones who see the rest of the world as a bunch of NPCs. 

Rosen was traded to the Dolphins just a few weeks after the Our Guy announcement. From there it was off to the Buccaneers, 49ers, Falcons, Browns and Vikings. Rosen’s personality is like a citronella candle for football coaches, who expect a high degree of unquestioning obedience. Rosen, now 29 years old, was last seen at Wharton Business School, where every room is full of people who think they are smarter than it.

The Our Guy Tweet is Rosen’s NFL legacy. He and the Cardinals deserved each other. In that way, at least, Josh really was their guy. 

#4: McCown and Poole Moss the Vikings.

Arizona's Nathan Poole was Randy Moss's college teammate at Marshall and spent all week pretending to be him on the scout team.

The impersonation reached perfection Sunday with Poole's 28-yard touchdown catch from Josh McCown as time expired, a stunning finish that prevented the Minnesota Vikings from making the playoffs.

The play, on fourth-and-25, rallied the Cardinals to an 18-17 victory and robbed the Vikings of the National Football Conference North title, giving the Green Bay Packers the division title.

''You don't have any clue how much it hurts,'' Minnesota's Corey Chavous said.

Poole caught the ball near the sideline in the end zone, and it was ruled that he was forced out by Denard Walker and Brian Russell.

''We said, 'Let's be the best receiver corps on the field,' '' Poole said. ''I don't know about stats-wise, but we came out with the victory.''

McCown had been sacked on second and third down, and Arizona barely got the final play off with four seconds to go.

''A lot of things go through your head when you get outside the pocket in that situation, a do-or-die situation,'' said McCown, a second-year pro who started the last three games. ''The ball has to go up, but you want to put it in a safe spot and give a guy a chance to make a play.'' – Excerpts from the AP Story, December 29, 2003. 

Behold: the Cardinals in their natural state, as the rain on your parade or the hornet on the rim of your soda can. They can never save their day, but they can always ruin yours.

The 2003 Vikings were a team in decline, though Daunte Culpepper and Randy Moss were still there. They took a 17-6 lead with 6:48 to play in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals were 3-11 and playing out the string. Josh McCown replaced Jeff Blake late in the year. His receivers, besides Poole, were rookies Anquan Boldin (the second-round pick) and Bryant Johnson (a forgettable first-rounder). Emmitt Smith, grinding through his dreary career epilogue, was at running back. Dave McGinnis, a non-entity promoted from within with a shrug, was the head coach. 

McCown capped a grueling drive with a fourth-and-1 touchdown pass to Steve Bush, but Emmitt got stopped short of the goal line on a two-point conversion attempt. The Cardinals recovered Neil Rackers’ onside kick just after the two-minute warning. A 30-yard pass interference penalty got the Cardinals into Vikings territory; a catch by Poole and two Emmitt runs got them into scoring position. But Kevin Williams sacked McCown, then Lance Johnstone strip-sacked him, with blocker Reggie Wells falling on the loose ball to keep the Cardinals alive. 

Then came McCown-to-Poole, with Paul Allen screaming on the Vikings radio call in the clip above as if he was auditioning for a death metal band. The Cardinals, as irrelevant as a team could be in 2003, became the superstars of the Week 17 highlight montages, randos who rushed the stage and stole the spotlight just before being shooed away for the playoffs. 

Has it really been over 22 years since this game? In my old-man mind, it occurred in the mid-2010s, because after a certain age everything happened “about 10 years ago.” The fact that McCown kept wandering onto the field and achieving brief relevance through the 2019 playoffs may be tricking my memory a bit.

But no, McCown-to-Poole was a generation ago. Yet somehow the memory remains fresh. Maybe it’s the dry desert air. Maybe it’s because the Cardinals still end many seasons with just a handful of wins but a troublesome reputation.

#3: The Snake Bites the Eagles, Again.

The Arizona Cardinals' publicity staff has begun to compile a list of ''Jake Plummer Game-Saving Comebacks.'' It's the sort of thing done for a Joe Montana or a John Elway, but in only 19 National Football League starts – Sunday's game with the Giants will be his 20th – Plummer has already brought the Cardinals from behind in the fourth quarter seven times.

There has been nothing run-of-the-mill about any of them. It's hard, in fact, to choose a favorite.

Was it when Jake the Snake moved the Cardinals 50 yards in 5 plays and 27 seconds to set up the game-winning field goal over the Redskins?

Or was it when he moved the Cardinals 55 yards in 6 plays and 34 seconds for the game-winning field goal as time expired against the Ravens?

How about 98 yards on 14 plays against the Eagles?

But perhaps the best comeback was the one that came up short – with the help of a controversial call by an official. That was the game three weeks ago against Dallas when the Cardinals charged at the Cowboys from 28 points down. In the second half, Plummer threw for 314 yards. The Cardinals lost, 35-28, but Plummer finished with 465 yards passing – and that did not include his pass to Rob Moore on the final play. It was ruled incomplete, although television replays appeared to show that the Cardinals deserved a touchdown.

The budding legend of Plummer, who is 23 years old, only blossoms when Jake talks about himself. He is as calm then as he is exciting to watch.

''Don't rush,'' Plummer said in explaining the key to his late-game heroics. ''The game won't end until that clock runs out. Relax and have fun with it. Believe in yourself. If I didn't believe in myself and instead listened to everything that was said about me – you're too small, too skinny and your arm's not strong enough – I'd be cleaning pools in Arizona. Or something.'' – Bill Wennington, New York Times, December 6, 1998.

I was surfing the web in search of which Jake Plummer comeback to select for this feature when I read the name “MarTay Jenkins.” It was like suddenly remembering the scent of my first girlfriend’s perfume on the day she dumped me, or the feeling of striking out with the bases loading in Little League, or the jolt of getting rear-ended in a Dunkin’ Donuts drive-thru.

The “Comeback Kid” made another comeback at the expense of his favorite foil.

Jake Plummer threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to MarTay Jenkins with nine seconds left, lifting the Arizona Cardinals to a 21-20 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday.

“I pumped the ball to David [Boston], the whole secondary was biting on the pump, so I threw it back across the field where I knew I had a guy there,” Plummer said. “It was just like we drew it up.”

“It was a desperation pass, he underthrew it and the guy made a great play,” Eagle safety Damon Moore said of the game-winning touchdown.

Jenkins beat Pro Bowl cornerback Troy Vincent for the winning score.

“They were really overlooking us,” Jenkins said. “They were looking forward to their bye week and their upcoming opponents. We were offended by that.” – L.A. Times archives, October 8, 2001.

Plummer was the quintessential Cardinals quarterback. He was peskier than good. He operated on pure vibes. His style of play was almost customized to be ignored until about 6:45 on the East Coast, then admired as an NFL Primetime montage.

The Cardinals played in the NFC East in Plummer’s day, and he always seemed to have a miracle up his sleeve to dazzle and devastate a major-market opponent. Plummer led seven victories over the Eagles in his Cardinals and Broncos career. He led five victories against the Cowboys, one of them in the 1998 playoffs. Plummer led 15 Cardinals fourth-quarter comebacks, even though he led the team to just 30 regular season victories. 

Insert your own favorite Plummer comeback if MarTay Jenkins’ fourth-down catch to beat the 2001 Eagles doesn’t do it for you; Bill Pennington offered a few options in the quote above. But no Cardinals list would be complete without at least one of them. Modern Cardinals history is defined by flawed quarterbacks on forgettable teams executing amazing comebacks. 

Though sometimes the Cardinals are on the receiving end of those comebacks. That’s when the sparks really fly.

#2: Crown Their Ass

As the players streamed into the locker room, Green seethed. He had his baseball cap off and his shirt untucked, a rarity for the coach. He kicked a paper Gatorade cup in the silence before finally addressing his shell-shocked team.

"I can't even repeat all the things that he said," [defensive end Bertrand] Berry said. "But the basic crux of the matter was, he said, 'I don't want anybody saying anything to the media, because when I get in there, I'm going off.' He didn't say it quite like that. But you can kind of guess how colorful it got. We just kind of blew it off. Because we were all kind of disappointed, and we just wanted to go home."

Waiting in the press conference room, among many others, was Mark Brown. A local freelance writer who was doing a Cardinals story to supplement the game coverage of the Chicago Sun-Times, he had an easy subject – the dominating Cardinals defense.

"That was the essence of the question," Brown said. "I asked about the defense and we all know how he answered it."

First came a brief opening statement. Green was clearly upset, but under control. He then answered five or six questions in the same upset but relatively measured tone. Then Brown spoke up.

"Coach, four picks against Grossman, two fumbles. What did you see about the Bears to shut them down that way?"

Brown barely finished talking before Green started. And as he spoke – yelled, after awhile – it became less about his defense and more about something else entirely. – Darren Urban, Cardinals Website, December 2nd, 2021. 

“The Bears are who we thought they were. They were who we thought they were. We played them in the third game of the preseason. Who takes the third game of the preseason like it's bulls**t? Bulls**t! We played them in the third game, everybody played three quarters, the Bears are who we thought they were! That's why we took the damn field!

"Now, if you want to crown them," Green loudly went on, slamming the side of the podium with his hand, "then crown their ass! But they are who we thought they were! And we let them off the hook!" – Dennis Green.

Matt Leinart, then a rookie and something of a Tinseltown celebrity from his USC days, played well in the Crown Their Ass game, though his training camp holdout had angered Green. Rex Grossman committed six turnovers for the Bears, but Peanut Tillman returned an Edgerrin James fumble (stripped by Brian Urlacher, not Tillman) for a touchdown with the Cardinals leading 23-10 in the fourth quarter, then Devin Hester returned a punt 83 yards for a game-winning touchdown.

The Cardinals had beaten the Bears in a preseason “dress rehearsal” which Green took very seriously but the Bears didn't. So there was a lot on Green’s mind besides a sudden upset loss, and it all erupted from him in one volcanic burst. 

Green would get fired at the end of a 5-11 season. No memories remain of his three years with the Cardinals except for Crown Their Ass, though many of his players would reach the Super Bowl in a few years. Green, who took the Vikings to the playoffs eight times, is best remembered for his contribution to the Mount Rushmore (Mount Vesuvius?) of coach’s tantrums. 

And Hester? He helped the Bears reach the Super Bowl in 2006, despite the fact that their quarterback sometimes casually committed six turnovers against bad opponents. Green’s rant should play on a continuous loop next to Hester’s Pro Football Hall of Fame bust. Oh, so you are skeptical of this guy’s worthiness? Just LOOK at what he did to opposing coaches!

#1: The Immaculate Interception

Well, the Steelers got one for the (other) thumb. But Arizona was a loser worth admiring, showing just how far it has come since those not-so-long-ago days as a penny-pinching laughingstock of a franchise.

“You are 2 minutes away from being world champions,” said Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner. “Either way, I am proud of this football team. I am so proud to be a part of this football team. I think that is one of the reasons why it doesn’t hurt as bad as it could.” – Paul Newberry, AP Story, February 2nd, 2009. 

We’re here to celebrate the 2009 Cardinals, not mock them, by ranking James Harrison’s 100-yard Super Bowl Pick-6 as the top Signature Moment in franchise history.

We’re here to celebrate Warner, then a rickety 37-yard old, battling through a block to get his hands on Harrison, the closest thing the NFL produced to a cryptid. 

We’re here to celebrate Larry Fitzgerald, the greatest player in Cardinals history, weaving through traffic for about 106 yards to nearly swat the ball from Harrison as he crossed the goal line. 

We’re here to celebrate players like Mike Gandy and Steve Breaston, immortalized forever by their hopeless hustle in Harrison’s highlight. 

We’re here to celebrate two Warner-to-Fitzgerald touchdowns in that Super Bowl. We’re celebrating a fourth-quarter comeback which was only thwarted by Ben Roethlisberger and Santonio Holmes staging their own counter-comeback. We’re celebrating Warner’s late-career resurrection, the greatest thing to happen to the Cardinals organization since 1949.  

The 2009 Cardinals lost four of their last six games. They went 9-7, winning an NFC West full of weaklings. They were one of the least impressive teams ever to reach the Super Bowl. They faced a Steelers opponent in the midst of its second Golden Age. Yet Warner, Fitzgerald and the Cardinals delivered their own Rocky moment, making Super Bowl XLIII one of the greatest games in history. 

I could have picked Fitzgerald’s first touchdown catch, over the outstretched hands of Troy Polamalu, which inspired the Madden 2010 cover. Or one of the great plays from that year’s NFC Championship game. But how could a moment of triumph really be a Cardinals signature moment? For nearly all of their century-plus history, the Cardinals have been palookas. Jobbers. They were at their most glorious when they made things harder for the heroes. 

And how hard did Warner and the Cardinals make things for the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII?

Harrison rolled over and lay face up, his arms and legs extended, as if making a motionless snow angel. He did not get up for a full two minutes while being visited by the Steelers' medical staff. During that time, not only was a penalty flag 100 yards away ruled an Arizona infraction, but the video referee also looked into whether the ball had crossed the goal line before the tackle. It was a crucial call — Harrison had taken all 18 seconds left on the clock to run the length of the field, so if he was ruled short of the goal line, Pittsburgh would have to choose between going for a field goal or a touchdown on its last play with no time remaining.

“I’ve never been more emotionally drained in my life,” he said. – Alan Schwarz, New York Times, February 2, 2009. 

The Cardinals went the distance. They were no longer just some bums from an old Chicago neighborhood. 

Want even more Cardinals stuff? Check out the All-Time Cardinals Quarterback Top Five, published in 2024!