Another Season Of The Same

In the course of making a joke (whose thrust was that I was encouraging a friend to rashly bet a substantial sum on the New York Jets winning the next Super Bowl), I found that an even more unlikely event than the Jets winning the Super Bowl would be my hometown Arizona Cardinals winning the same game. They are presently not an incredibly strong team, although I would argue that they possess one thing lacking in many of the years during which they have played characteristically poorly: hope.

Hope of better days may not be realized for the Cardinals this season, and so a middling or even bad season seems likely or at least possible enough that I ought to be prepared, and I am. I thought they would enjoy better odds of winning the Super Bowl than three hundred to one, which must be as long of odds as they have ever faced, but I did not entertain hopes that they would do even as much as contend for their division.

They have made some tolerable moves. New coach Bruce Arians did a lot at Indianapolis with not so very much, although he did have a quarterback. The Cardinals have Carson Palmer, who has had his best days already. The Cardinals love quarterbacks who are making their final stop before the grave. Still, there are a smattering of other players on the team who just maybe could be the beginnings of something.

I will not speak too stridently about their virtues to my friends, most of whose favorite teams (The Eagles, The Dolphins, the Giants and others) are worlds better than mine. That was true even back in Arizona, where (I doubt I need to say) most people rooted for other teams even if they weren't from another state. No, I will quietly support my team and wait to be recognized in the event that they surprise.