NFL WORST

 

               I’m told that the state motto of Alabama is “Thank God for Mississippi.” By that gauge the Arizona Cardinals must have emitted a collective groan when the notorious Daniel Snyder sold the Washington Commanders, nee Redskins. That left the Cards as the clear choice for worst organization in the National Football League and, maybe, in all American pro sports.

               That’s saying a lot, you say? Well, the Cardinals are that bad. For instance, what other team’s lineage includes Al Capone?

               More about Capone later, because the Cards’ “now” is plenty bad enough. Their won-lost record last season was 4 and 13, which wasn’t the league’s worst but it was close, and extended a losing tradition that dates to the team’s founding. The club was among the 14 original members of what in 1920 was called the American Professional Football Association, along with the Akron Indians, Muncie Flyers and Chicago Bears. The loop changed its name to the National Football League two years later.

                In their 103 years of existence in Chicago (1920-59), St. Louis (1960-87) and Arizona (1988-present) the Cards have won just two NFL titles—in 1925 and 1947—and the first of those still is contested by folks in Pottstown, Pennsylvania (current population about 23,000), who believe their late and lamented Maroons were cheated by scheduling manipulations. The Cards’ all-time record of 581-790-41 includes the NFL lead for losses. Their winning percentage of .426 ranks third-lowest among the 32 current teams, ahead of only the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, relative newcomers both.

               It’s a foregone conclusion that the season that begins next month will worsen those marks. Since the end of last season the team has had its best offensive player—wide receiver Deandre Hopkins—in effect quit, its best two defensive linemen-- J.J. Watts and Zach Allen—leave via retirement and free agency, respectively, and its defensive leader, safety Budda Baker, ask to be traded before reneging.

 Quarterback Kyler Murray, the recipient of a five-year, $250 million contract in 2021, is a sourpuss whose work ethic has been questioned. He’s a smallish guy who likes to carry the ball, meaning he’s injury prone. He missed the last six games of 2022 with a hurt knee and it’s anybody’s guess when he’ll be combat-ready this year.

The Cards start the season with a new head coach but the former one hasn’t exactly gone away. Kliff Kingsbury (four-season AZ record 28-37-1) was fired only a year after he was given a six-year contract extension at $5.5 million per, and the Cards have to keep paying him until he finds a new job. He recently was seen enjoying the beaches in Thailand.

Players thinking of joining the team might heed a recent survey by the NFL Players Association that ranked it last in the league in five of eight “quality of employment” categories, including food service, weight room, locker room, training facilities and treatment of families. Its overall rank among the 32 teams was last, by a lot.

               And upstairs in the front office, all is not well. The team has a new general manager after the old one left for still-undisclosed health reasons after serving a suspension for extreme DUI. The team was named in ex-Miami Dolphins coach Brian Flores’ racism lawsuit against the league, for firing black head coach Steve Wilks after just a season on the job (2018) so it could hire Kingsbury.  It’s also being taken to arbitration by fired former vice president Terry McDonough, who charges President Michael Bidwill with a Snyder-like list of beastly executive behaviors aimed at himself and other team employees. Bidwill denies all.

                The Cardinals are one of five NFL teams that are, essentially, family businesses, headed for decades by nepots (the others are the Bears, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals). The founding father was Charley Bidwill, who bought the team in 1933 for a reported $50,000, including $5,000 in cash and $45,000 in assumed debts.

 A lawyer and businessman, the basis of Bidwill’s fortune was Sportsman’s Park, a Cicero, Illinois, horse track that closed in 2002. In Illinois and elsewhere racing is a political business, dependent on state legislatures for operating dates. Bidwill was splendidly placed for that, being the son of a Chicago alderman and the brother of a state senator. Reputedly and reportedly, his partner at Sportsman’s was Capone. At the gangster’s death in 1947 Bidwill bought the track outright from Capone’s lawyer, Edwin O’Hare.

When Bidwill died later that same year control of the team, and the track, passed to his widow, Violet. When she died in 1962 they went to the couple’s adopted sons Bill and Charles Jr., the latter nicknamed “Stormy” for his bad temper. The two didn’t get along and in 1971 they split, Bill taking the Cardinals and Stormy the track. Bill in 1988 took the team to the Phoenix area. His son, Michael, runs it now.

The Arizona move didn’t improve team fortunes-- it’s had but seven winning seasons in its 35 there. The sole high spot came in 2008 when it made its only franchise trip to the Super Bowl despite a 9-7 regular season won-lost record. The Cards’ original Arizona home was Arizona State U’s Sun Devil Stadium¸ from where it annually trailed the NFL in attendance. A new stadium, opened in 2006, cured that, but nothing else.

If a vote were taken, Arizonans would remove the Bidwills by a landslide margin. Tsk, tsk, in the NFL an owner needn’t succeed to prosper—Snyder, who bought the Skins for $800 million in 1999, got $6 billion-plus when he sold, and the Cards must be worth at least that. Not a bad return on Charley’s $50,000, huh?