Arizona Cardinals-Dallas Cowboys game tests fans' allegiances
Kent Somers
For the Cardinals, the Cowboys coming to town has been like enduring a visit from a richer and more popular older brother. Everyone fawns over him for a few days and ignores the sibling who is around to take out the trash and clean up after the dog.
A couple of decades passed before the Cardinals became the most popular NFL team in their own town.
Vai Sikahema, a running back and returner for the Cardinals from 1986-90, grew up in Mesa, so he knew how popular the Cowboys were in Arizona. Still, Sikahema was taken aback when the Cardinals played their first home game in Arizona on Monday night, Sept. 12, 1988.
“It was a sea of silver and blue,” he said. “I remember I trotted out to pregame warmups with (teammates) Roy Green and Stump Mitchell and we actually got booed.”
The Cowboys’ popularity in Arizona dates to the pre-Cardinals days. When the Valley didn’t have an NFL team, Cowboys games were routinely broadcast in the market. The team won consistently, and it didn’t hurt that it had a handful of good players from Arizona State during some of those years.
It took a couple of decades for the dynamic to begin to shift in the Cardinals’ favor. The Cardinals moved into a stadium of their own in 2006, won more frequently and it was no longer uncool to buy tickets and apparel.
It hasn’t completely flipped, however, and the 2017 Cardinals know there will be plenty of Cowboys fans with Arizona driver's licenses when the teams meet Monday night at University of Phoenix Stadium.
When he arrived in Arizona in 2013, it didn’t take Cardinals coach Bruce Arians long to find out how popular the Cowboys were here.
“I was here about a week,” he said. “I heard all the stories, and rightfully so. They had no team they could root for (pre-Cardinals), so obviously they’re not going to change their allegiance.”
Much of the Cardinals’ history in Arizona can be told through their games against the Cowboys, beginning with the first home game at Sun Devil Stadium.
CARDINALS PODCAST:Cowboys come to town for Monday Night Football showdown
The Cardinals lost 17-14, partly due to a decision made by coach Gene Stallings before the last play of the first half.
The Cardinals were in position to kick a 42-yard field goal, but Stallings decided to run a fake. Kicker Al Del Greco took the lateral and was tackled at the 16-yard line.
Afterward, Stallings admitted the obvious: It was not a wise decision on his part.
“It doesn’t take a Phi Beta Kappa to figure that out,” he said.
The game also illustrated the Cardinals’ problems in prime time. From 1970 through 2014, the Cardinals were 7-15-1 on Monday nights, including losing eight of their first nine after moving from St. Louis to Arizona.
After the 1988 game, the Cardinals didn’t play on Monday night again until 1995, when they met the Cowboys on Christmas night. It turned out to be Buddy Ryan’s last game as coach and general manager.
The Cardinals were 4-11, and fans were disenchanted with Ryan, who had promised to bring a winner to town.
Two players got into a fight in the locker room before the game, with broadcaster and ex-Cardinals great Dan Dierdorf witnessing the scuffle.
The Cowboys whipped the Cardinals 37-13, and Ryan watched the end of the game from the tunnel, mistakenly leaving a bit early because he thought the game was over.
His tenure was over the next day.
For the Cardinals, the most memorable part of the game was fullback Larry Centers leaping over cornerback Larry Brown, which was shown in the movie “Jerry Maguire.”
Playing the Cowboys always provided a little extra motivation, Centers said.
“When things aren’t going great, you look for anything you can to motivate you,” Centers said. “That’s definitely something I used as fuel to help me step my game up any way I could.
“Plus, being from Texas and not necessarily being a Cowboys fan, it was always special when I got to compete against them.”
In 1998, the Cardinals made the playoffs for first time in a non-strike year since 1975. They met the Cowboys on Jan. 2, 1999, in the first round and upset them 20-7 in Dallas. It was the Cardinals’ first playoff victory since 1947.
Two years later, coach Vince Tobin was fired after the Cardinals lost to Dallas 48-7.
As an organization, the Cardinals' fortunes began to shift when they moved into University of Phoenix Stadium in 2006. Two years later, they went 9-7 and made it to their first Super Bowl.
One of those nine wins was in overtime over the Cowboys in Glendale. Sean Morey blocked a punt in overtime, and linebacker Monty Beisel returned it for the winning touchdown.
That started the Cardinals’ current four-game winning streak over the Cowboys, which includes two overtime victories and another that was settled by a field goal with seconds left.
There will be a considerable number of Cowboys fans at Monday's game, but it’s not like the old days, when a red jersey at Cardinals-Cowboys games stood out like a pimple.
Receiver Larry Fitzgerald pointed to the victory in 2008 as the pivot point.
“It’s been positive since then,” he said. “So hopefully we’ll have a good contingency of Cardinals fans in the building and not too much blue.”
The Lasso
- 4: Cardinals have won their past four games with the Cowboys. A fifth consecutive win would be the second-longest win streak in the history of the series.
- 9: Number of touchdowns scored by Cardinals receiver J.J. Nelson in his past 11 games.
- 20: Inside linebacker Karlos Dansby is one interception shy of 20 or his career. If he gets it, he would become the fifth player in NFL history to have at least 40 sacks and 20 interceptions. The others are Seth Joyner, Ray Lewis, Wilbur Marshall, Brian Urlacher.
- 37: Number of days that have passed since the Cardinals last played at home, a preseason game against Chicago.
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