finally! (again)

The Arizona Cardinals are going to the SUPER BOWL!

The Arizona Cardinals are going...to the SUPER BOWL!!!

I've been a fan of the underdog all my life. I think my eyes instinctively went to the bottom of the standings when I went looking for teams to root for in the 2 'other' major sports that Toronto didn't have a team for...the NFL and NBA...when I was a kid. I used to love the LA Clippers, all the way down there year after year in those NBA Standings...the 'other' LA team. But my long time favourte team is the Cardinals. The St. Louis Cardinals...then the Phoenix Cardinals...and finally, the Arizona Cardinals. I've loved 'em that long. Ricky Phoehl is a legend in my eyes...not for what he did in his stint in the white and red way back when...but what he could do in Tecmo Super Bowl. Guy was a TD machine! I didn't JUST like them because they were bad...I was fond of cardinals (the birds), I also liked their logo/uniform...and I thought it was cool that a city had a football and baseball team with the same name (back in the St.Louis days). So this isn't some sort of 'joke'...I really have been rooting for, and following the Cardinals for a long time.

So anyway, I've been through so many 'maybe this is the year Arizona has a good team' and 'they look good on paper...but its the Cardinals!' that I had all but thrown in the towel after the team won the division by default, and stumbled into the playoffs, getting waxed by the Eagles and Patriots in the process...but the passing game got going again....they started using 'the Edge' again (why they stopped using him is anyone's guess?)...and the D started to look better than average...and low and behold, the team was playing for the NFC Title today...at home no less...with the winner off to the big dance in 2 weeks!

And what a game! Big plays early...my man Fitz with 3 TD's...and we're looking good going into halftime. But I knew that somehow, as crap as he'd been playing, Donovan McNabb, a guy I dislike quite a bit, would find a way to make it a game. And he did. And that same old song started playing in my head and in my heart. "Oh So Close" by Do Wrong and the Heartbreakers...but I shook it off, and told myself we still had a shot...if only they'd stop trying to run the ball and give it back to #11 ASAP!! And on the final drive...they did...and they did...and now...they're going to the SUPER BOWL...and I actually get a chance to feel what its like for a team I've rooted for my whole life, to play in the 'BIG' game.

Go Cards!!!

***This whole post has been rendered obsolete as my wasted ass forgot that the Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series titles back in 92-93...so...I guess its still really, really awesome that the Cardinals are in the Super Bowl, and that I can get away with wearing my #11 Larry Fizgerald jersey 24/7 for the next 2 weeks...but I've lived 'the dream' already...sort of...alright, carry on....