1st & 10 Do It Again – GO! FIGHT! WIN!

I don’t need to tell you how I feel about the football blaring loudly from the TV.

What I do need to tell you is why, in spite of all that, I’ll be glued to our HDTV come game time.

I’ve taken an interest in the Cardinals.

True story.

I can barely believe it myself really, seeing as how I’ve not shown allegiance to any football team since having retired my pompoms years ago (Go Bearcats!).

It’s not that I never liked football.  Back in the day I was all about the touchdown.  And the adrenaline.  The fight song.

I never was a fan of professional football though.  I just didn’t get the draw.  The Packers, the Cowboys, the Broncos?  They were all the same to me: inflated morons in tight pants and shoulder pads.  They weren’t like the guys I knew on my high school team, real people who I saw every day in algebra class.  No.  The only time I heard anything about those buffed out NFL players it was just that they’d been arrested for drunk driving.  Or were engaged to marry a supermodel.  Far from the hometown heroes I knew and loved.

Fast forward to present day.

My husband happens to be quite the football fan.  Not only does he watch the games at home but we also have the pleasure of listening to them on AM radio Sunday mornings when we drive home from church.  He keeps multiple fantasy football teams and spends hours concocting elaborate spreadsheets to keep them all straight.

Not my cup of tea really.

Until he found a way to give me a vested interest that is.

He knows I’m a sucker for a good story.  Be it a movie, a book, heck, even a commercial that tugs at the heartstrings can get me.  And so just before the championship games two weeks ago he told me a story that gave me a reason to find fandom.

Apparently the Cardinals have not enjoyed many a victory throughout the history of their fumbling franchise.  They’ve been a laughing stock of sorts, not even deserving of a loyal fanbase.

And then, of course, there’s the warm fuzzies story of their all-star quarterback, Kurt Warner.  His unlikely rise to fame came only after having the door slammed in his face a time or two.  While that certainly is something Disney movies are made of, the rest of his story is far more impressive.

Kurt Warner married a woman who was already raising two children on her own.  He went on to adopt them both, not hesitating for a moment in spite of the fact that one of them has special needs.  By all accounts he is an upstanding citizen, an amazing husband, and a selfless father.  Oh, and a strong Christian to boot.

See what I mean.  Stories like these?  Well, they get me.

And then, of course, there’s also the fact that I call Arizona home.

So you can see why I’ll be joining my husband on the couch, spinach artichoke dip and a margarita in hand.

The Cardinals have given me a reason to pick up my poms again.  And, lucky for me, the Bearcats were red too.