The Arizona Cardinals Super Bowl Hangover

Every year in the NFL the same thing happens. The Super Bowl winner is remembered and the loser is quickly forgotten. It appears that the same thing is about to happen to the Arizona Cardinals as they are are going through an obvious Super Bowl hangover. It is hard enough to have to walk off the field after losing the biggest game of their lives, with the Pittsburgh Steelers celebrating all around them, let alone have to deal with the off field situations that have arisen.

It has become a constant in the league. The conference championship winners, yet eventual losers of the Super Bowl, go on to not even make the playoffs the following year. This has happened to eight teams in the last nine years excluding the Seattle Seahawks. The reasoning behind this is pretty obvious. Free agents from the losing team become incredibly valuable on the open market. After getting the experience of being in the big game, plenty of teams come running to sign that sort of veteran leadership. On top of that, the players themselves start to think that they deserve more. Either with respect to a bigger salary or they just do not play as hard as they did before. Even further, being a conference championship winner makes you a target for the entire duration of the following season.

This is exactly what is happening to the Arizona Cardinals. Opposing teams are gearing up to take them down and prove that last season was a fluke and turmoil surrounds the team. Coach Ken Whisenhunt has come out publicly and stated that the team is dealing with a lot of issues and that he has never faced this much adversity before in his coaching career. GM Rod Graves was less bleak and chose to use the word challenging and not the world turmoil. No matter how you say it, the fact is that the Cardinals are in for the fight of their lives this year.

Offensive coordinator Todd Haley has left the team to become head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and defensive coordinator Clancy Pendergast also moved to the Chiefs. Defensive end Antonio Smith also took off for green pastures after signing a lucrative deal with the Houston Texans.

On top of these moves, receiver Anquan Boldin and DT Darnell Dockett are both looking for substantial pay raises after their big years last season. Both of them have a total of five years left on their contract but seem willing to sit out the season if they do not get the money they feel they deserve.

The Cardinals simply do not have the funds to give those two the raises they want. The team is putting all its extra cash and effort into signing franchise linebacker Karlos Dansby to a long term deal and trying to lock up strong safety Adrian Wilson.

The good news for the team is that they were able to re-sign QB Kurt Warner and they still have one of the top wide receivers in the league in Larry Fitzgerald. Possibly another plus for the team, although a hidden positive, is that many other teams are not taking them seriously. The Cards do not have the pressure to back up their play from last season that most Super Bowl runner ups do. There is an outside chance that a number of teams may once again take them lightly, which could allow them to surprise everyone all over again. Whichever way you look at it, this season is going to be a battle for the Arizona Cardinals, but they did win over a lot of fans last year and will have the support.