Arizona Cardinals

The franchise that would become the Arizona Cardinals began in 1898 as a neighborhood athletic club on the South Side of Chicago, organized by painter and contractor Chris O'Brien. The team acquired its cardinal red jerseys — second-hand from the University of Chicago — and O'Brien remarked that the faded maroon was not maroon but cardinal red. The name stuck.

The Cardinals joined the American Professional Football Association in 1920, making them one of the NFL's charter members alongside the Bears. But unlike their crosstown rivals, the Cardinals were always the second team in Chicago — less popular, less successful, and perpetually overshadowed by George Halas's operation on the North Side. The franchise changed hands multiple times and survived the Depression more through stubbornness than prosperity.

The Cardinals did produce some memorable early players and moments. Paddy Driscoll was one of the league's first stars in the 1920s, and the team fielded competitive squads during the 1920s and 1930s. But the rivalry with the Bears was always one-sided in terms of fan support and civic attention, and the Cardinals spent much of their early history as Chicago's forgotten franchise.

The Cardinals' finest hour came in the late 1940s with the legendary "Dream Backfield" of Charley Trippi, Paul Christman, Pat Harder, and Marshall Goldberg. This unit powered the Cardinals to the 1947 NFL Championship — a 28-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles played in a blizzard at Comiskey Park. It remains the franchise's only NFL Championship.

The Cardinals reached the championship game again in 1948 but lost to the Eagles in a rematch. After that, the franchise began a long, painful decline. Owner Charles Bidwill, who had purchased the team in 1932 and built the championship roster, died in 1947 just months before his team won the title. His wife, Violet, and later his sons Bill and Charles Jr. maintained ownership, but the team could not compete with the Bears for Chicago's football allegiance.

By the late 1950s, the Cardinals were drawing fewer than 20,000 fans to some home games. The franchise was financially precarious and athletically uncompetitive. Something had to change, and in 1960, the Bidwill family made the decision to move the team to St. Louis.

The move to St. Louis provided a fresh start, but the results were largely the same. The Cardinals played at Busch Memorial Stadium and developed passionate fans in their new market, but sustained success proved elusive. The franchise made the playoffs just three times in 28 seasons in St. Louis.

The most successful period came in the mid-1970s under Don Coryell, who brought an innovative passing offense that foreshadowed the Air Coryell system he would perfect in San Diego. With quarterback Jim Hart and a talented roster, the Cardinals won consecutive NFC East titles in 1974 and 1975 — the franchise's first playoff appearances in nearly three decades. But Coryell departed for the Chargers after the 1977 season, and the Cardinals quickly reverted to mediocrity.

The 1980s were largely forgettable, defined by coaching instability and stadium disputes. The Bidwill family, still running the franchise, grew frustrated with the aging Busch Stadium and the city's unwillingness to fund a new venue. Bill Bidwill, who had assumed full ownership control, began looking for a new home — and found one in the Arizona desert.

The Cardinals moved to Arizona in 1988, initially playing at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. The early years in the desert were rocky — the team struggled on the field, the temporary stadium was far from ideal, and the franchise had difficulty building a loyal fan base in a market that was new to the NFL.

There were occasional bright spots. The 1998 season under Vince Tobin produced a surprising playoff appearance — the franchise's first in 16 years — and Jake Plummer became a fan favorite with his improvisational style. But the Cardinals went one-and-done in the Wild Card round, and the success proved fleeting.

The late 1990s and early 2000s were defined by coaching carousel — Tobin, Dave McGinnis, Dennis Green — and a persistent inability to attract and retain top talent. The franchise was widely viewed as one of the worst-run organizations in professional sports. The one development that would transform the franchise was the construction of a new stadium: the state-of-the-art facility that would open in Glendale in 2006 and finally give the Cardinals a proper home.

The hiring of Dennis Green in 2004 didn't pan out, but the franchise's fortunes changed dramatically when Ken Whisenhunt was hired in 2007 and paired with quarterback Kurt Warner, who had signed as a veteran backup in 2005 and gradually worked his way into the starting role. The combination produced the most remarkable season in franchise history.

In 2008, the Cardinals went 9-7 in the regular season — hardly dominant — but caught fire in the playoffs. Warner threw for 379 yards and four touchdowns in a Wild Card blowout of Atlanta, then led wins over Carolina and Philadelphia to reach Super Bowl XLIII. The game against the Pittsburgh Steelers was an instant classic: the Cardinals rallied from a 20-7 deficit, took a 23-20 lead on a 64-yard Warner-to-Larry Fitzgerald touchdown with 2:37 remaining, only for Ben Roethlisberger to hit Santonio Holmes for a go-ahead touchdown with 35 seconds left. The 27-23 loss was agonizing, but the Cardinals had proven they belonged on the biggest stage.

Larry Fitzgerald's dominance in that playoff run — 30 catches for 546 yards and 7 touchdowns in four games — established him as one of the greatest postseason performers in NFL history. Warner retired after the 2009 season, and the Cardinals regressed under a series of inadequate quarterbacks, but the Super Bowl XLIII run had permanently changed the franchise's identity.

Bruce Arians arrived in 2013 and immediately changed the franchise's culture. A bold, aggressive play-caller who favored deep passing, Arians won Coach of the Year in his first season and built the Cardinals into genuine contenders. When Carson Palmer stayed healthy, the results were spectacular.

The 2015 season was the best in franchise history by record: the Cardinals went 13-3, with Palmer throwing 35 touchdowns and Fitzgerald enjoying a late-career renaissance. Arizona dismantled Green Bay 26-20 in overtime in the Divisional Round — Fitzgerald catching the winning touchdown — but were blown out 49-15 by Carolina in the NFC Championship Game, an abrupt and deflating end to what had felt like a championship season.

Arians retired after the 2017 season, and Palmer retired alongside him. The Cardinals were left without a coach or a quarterback, and the rebuild that followed would be extensive. But Arians had proven that the Cardinals could be a legitimate power, not just a brief curiosity.