Officials and Jacke Help Raise Arizona
On the bright side, there’s still a chance Paul Tagliabue will wake up today, use his power as commissioner and declare the Arizona Cardinals out of the playoffs to protect the integrity of the NFL.
If the officials--now there’s a group that should be dumped in the best interests of football--do not make a Vinny Testaverde short-of-the-goal-line-like ruling and award the Cardinals their only touchdown, they lose to the Chargers and miss the playoffs.
The Chargers! Ryan Crying Leaf! Only some guy named Ryan Thelwell caught more of San Diego quarterback Craig Whelihan’s passes--five--than Kwamie Lassiter--four. And Lassiter plays for the Cardinals!
Yet the playoff-bound Cardinals had to kick a 52-yard field goal on the final play of the game to beat San Diego, 16-13, in Sun Devil Stadium, the site of next week’s Fiesta Bowl. If matched against the Whelihan-directed Chargers (5-11), the winner of Tennessee-Florida State would be 10-point favorites.
“I thought the momentum was on our side if we went to overtime,” said Whelihan, who finished the season strong with 16 interceptions in his last five games--good enough to keep Leaf on the bench.
Come on, the NFL cannot allow this to happen. The Cardinals didn’t beat a team with a winning record. They’ve already lost to Dallas twice--their playoff opponent--and the Cowboys aren’t exactly Super Bowl-bound. The Cardinals haven’t won in Texas Stadium since 1989.
This is no Cinderella story like Tampa Bay a year ago. These are the Cardinals (9-7), and do you want to take the chance that catastrophe wipes out everyone else and owner Bill Bidwill accepts, and then begins charging fans to look at the Lombardi Trophy?
The Chargers outgained the Cardinals, 377-270, in total offense and limited Arizona to 1.4 yards a run, but for the third consecutive game Arizona won on the final play with a Chris Jacke kick.
The Cardinals, now a stirring 64-112 since moving here from St. Louis, have won seven of their games this season by a prayer--three points or less.
“They’re calling us the Cardiac Cards,” said cornerback Aeneas Williams, and isn’t that original? “We’re giving the fans something to get excited about.”
Hundreds of fans climbed the fences to run on the field, tear up the turf, trample a San Diego TV broadcaster--who had to be saved by security--and try to pull down one of the goal posts.
“Our fans were just great,” said Arizona running back Larry Centers, and since the San Diego TV broadcaster was still looking for her shoes somewhere on the field, she missed the interview.
This was supposed to be the biggest game in the 11 years since the Cardinals moved here. The local newspaper reported Sunday morning, “The Cardinals have sprouted wings this week. They’ve captured the imagination, if not the the heart, of the community.”
That story was right next to the one describing how Circle K, Tribune Newspapers and a Phoenix businessman had to step forward and guarantee the sale of 2,500 tickets in order to ensure a sellout--the 13th in 11 years--and lift the TV blackout. At game time, the upper deck beyond one of the goal posts remained empty.
Cardinal fever, would somebody please catch it.
“I cried like a baby,” said Williams, so emotionally overcome that teammate Anthony Edwards had to carry him off the field. “I wasn’t afraid to let the tears fall. I’ve always envisioned this moment.”
Now there’s an optimist. You would have to go back to 1975 to find the last time the Cardinals made the playoffs in a non-strike season--the longest NFL streak of such dreadful performances. The Cardinals also made the playoffs in the nine-game, strike-shortened 1982 season and were creamed in the first round by Green Bay.
The Cardinals have made the playoffs seven times since coming into existence in 1920. You would have to go back to 1984 to find the last time the Cardinals finished with a winning season. And after playing Dallas next week, you will still have to go back to 1947 for the last Cardinal playoff win.
“All the bashing we got from [the media], we’re starting to reap the benefits from all our hard work,” said Centers, sentenced to nine years of hard labor so far with the Cardinals. “To all those who jumped ship on us, here we are.
“The whole world can doubt, but the bottom line is we’re in the show and the record is 0-0. Anything can happen.”
That is Jake Plummer’s claim to fame, of course, as the Cardinals’ run-around quarterback. Already likened to Joe Montana, he has engineered nine comebacks in two years.
The Cardinals, desperate to give their fans some sign of hope and looking to win a referendum next year for a $1.8-million stadium-convention center in nearby Mesa, bestowed a $29.7-million contract extension on Plummer last week. The Cardinals gave Plummer a $15-million signing bonus, although his two-year record as a starter is 12-13 with 32 touchdowns and 35 interceptions.
For 59 minutes 53 seconds, Plummer was nothing special against the Chargers. His team’s only touchdown came on Adrian Murrell’s lunge for the goal line in the first quarter. Replays showed that Murrell’s legs were not only short of the goal line, but his reach with the ball fell shy.
This is the NFL, however, and head linesman Tom Stabile saw a touchdown. A similar call lifted the Jets over the Seahawks a few weeks ago.
“Pinch me, are we really in the playoffs?” Centers said. “They aren’t going to make a bad call tomorrow and tell us we’re really not in, are they?”
The Chargers almost did the dirty work for Tagliabue, bouncing the Cardinals from the playoffs. They scored with 16 seconds remaining to make the score 13-12, and San Diego Coach June Jones, who starts work today as the University of Hawaii’s new football coach, considered going for two points before opting for a John Carney kick and tie.
Carney kicked off, a line drive fielded at the Arizona 10-yard line by Eric Metcalf--traded to the Cardinals by the Chargers as part of the deal to enable San Diego to select Leaf--and Metcalf ran it back to the San Diego 44-yard line.
Seven seconds to play and Plummer fired a 10-yard strike to Frank Sanders, bringing on Jacke with three seconds left. Jacke, out of football for a year and a half after kicking for Green Bay in their Super Bowl win and signed here four games ago to replace the injured Joe Nedney, had missed two field goals earlier in the game.
But his kick from 52 yards had the distance to go 62, and not only gave the Cardinals a win, but improved their standing in the first round of the draft. Arizona gets San Diego’s No. 1 pick in 1999--the eighth choice overall--as part of the Leaf deal.
“We’re at the point now where we have finally turned the corner and gotten over the hump,” said Arizona linebacker Jamir Miller. “We’re showing everyone that we are not a joke.”
Too bad Leaf’s not playing for the Cardinals.
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Nostalgia City
The longest current championship droughts of NFL teams:
Team: Last Title
Cardinals: 1947 (in Chicago)
Rams: 1951 (in Los Angeles)
Detroit: 1957
Philadelphia: 1960
Minnesota: 1961