Oh. My. God.

Have you ever felt a city vibrate? Phoenix, Arizona is vibrating right now, and in the best possible way.

You'll have to forgive us if we relish this for a little while. Brag, no...but just sit back in wonder and amazement.


You see, our football team, the Arizona Cardinals is going to the Superbowl.


Now right there? Those are words that I thought I, or no one else for that matter, would ever utter.


The Cardinals have a long and sordid history of sucking. Back in 1947, they won their lone NFL championship, about 20 years before the Superbowl even existed. In 1947, they were the Chicago Cardinals.


In 1960, they moved to Missouri and became the St. Louis Cardinals, where they proceeded to suck for the next 27 years.


In 1987, after St. Louis was sick of them, they moved to Arizona and became the Phoenix Cardinals. Then they sucked for 6 more years, and decided to change the name of the team to the Arizona Cardinals, to see if that would help.


It didn't.


They went to the playoffs once in Arizona, in the 1998 season. They beat Dallas in the wildcard game. And then got pummeled by Vikings in their second-ever playoff game.


Basically, they've sucked in Arizona for 20 years.


No one expected this in 2009. They somehow eeked out a 9-7 recorded (while losing their last 3 regular season games) to win the NFC West. Of course, the Pop Warner team I cheered for in 4th grade (yes I did, shut up) could have won the NFC West.


Then something kind of amazing happened. The Cards hosted the wildcard game, and everyone picked the Atlanta Falcons to win. For one reason or another, the Cardinals decided to look like a real, big-boy football team, and they played. And they won.


Well, that was our miracle. The next game would be away, at the Carolina Panthers. It was supposed to rain. I thought that would be the end of it, because as the Cardinals have clearly shown this season, if they have to play in weather that's less than 70 degrees and sunny, they're screwed. (See 47-7 loss to Patriots in the snow).


So they traveled to North Carolina. And my brother, who lives there, got to go to the game. That bastard. All the talking heads picked the Panthers to win. And the Cardinals won again. They actually won pretty convincingly. And there was much rejoicing, especially when the Eagles beat the N.Y. Giants, and we realized that the NFC Championship game would be in Phoenix.


Which brings us to today, where the Cardinals, through the grace of God and Larry Fitzgerald, have beaten the Philadelphia Eagles, won the NFC Championship and are going to the Superbowl. The Cardinals are going to the Superbowl. No matter how many times I type that, it just doesn't compute. Our perennial, lovable losers are the NFC champs.


Now there's just one thing left to decide: Where the party is going to be. The phone calls and texts are already flying fast and furious. The next two weeks are going to be fun in Phoenix...if you're a football fan.





GO CARDS!!!



Oh, and Troy Aikman? You can SUCK IT. If you're going to work for the network, you might try being a little more objective. Just saying.