Do you think the Green Bay front office and head coach Mike McCarthy monitor the failures and successes of Brett Farve with the Jets?  Sure they do, and when they see this score and read about the game I’m sure a couple of what ifs will be going through their mind.  Especially now that Aaron Rodgers may have a separated shoulder.  Farve was 24-for-34 for 289 yards six touchdowns and one interception. This guy is just sick. Fantasy owners that had Farve as their starting quarterback have to be doing back flips. I’m sure the wild and crazy Jets fans are.

There hasn’t been this much excitement over the Jets since Joe Namath.  Speaking of Joe Namath, all Farve did was tied Namath’s franchise record six touchdown passes.  Even if the Cardinals cornerbacks are bad,  what Farve did was impressive at any level, any age let alone in the NFL and at 38 years young!  Do you think that the Jets front office and head coach Eric Mangini aren’t patting themselves on the back and giving each other a high five?  Farve broke his own personal record for touchdown passes.  Everything was set up for a special day when the Jets came out in their New York Titans throwback uniforms of gold and blue.

No one wanted to see Farve leave the Green Bay Packers except maybe the Minnesota Vikings.  Even now it is hard to see Farve in the Jets uniform.  It might not take too long to get used to seeing Farve in Jet green if he keeps on having games like he had today.  No one wants to see a first time ballot Hall of Famer ruin his legacy. A couple of the NFL greats left the team that they built their legacy up with for a chance to start for another team. It rarely works out, and most of them realize that they should have just retired with their longstanding team. Sometimes egos get in the way.  Some of those players damage their legacy. This is not the case for Farve. He just wanted to play football again, the sport he loves.

Farve thought that he could still play at a high level in the NFL. The Packers didn’t believe that he could anymore. Even though the season is only into it’s fourth game, Farve is proving to himself, the Jets and the Packers, and the rest of the NFL that he was right.

On defense the Jets are a work in progress.  Last week the defense was scorched by the San Diego Chargers offense.  The Jets do have a future Pro-bowler in second year corner Darrelle Revis.  In his rookie season last year he was thrown in the fire against the top receiver of the opposing offenses and he responded by playing superb against the likes of Randy Moss who he had to play twice.  This year he already has a spectacular game winning one hand tip to himself interception against divisional rivals the Miami Dolphins while being hung on to by the Dolphins receiver Ted Ginn Jr.  The Jets brought in outside linebacker Calvin Pace from the Arizona Cardinals to help with the pass rush.  That should be an interesting story line for today’s game.  The Defense plays a 3-4, they have to play aggressive against the explosive Arizona offense or they could be in for a long day.

The Arizona Cardinals have been on a steady climb of improvement since Ken Whisenhunt took over last year after leaving as the Pittsburgh Steelers Offensive coordinator.  Ken Whisenhunt believed that the Pittsburgh Steelers should have selected him as their coach and got tired of going through the waiting process and jumped on the offer from the Cardinals last year.  Whisenhunt had turned down coaching the Oakland Raiders for Al Davis before Lane Kiffin was hired because he believed that he was the heir apparent to Bill Cowher.  The team is set up to become a playoff team for the first in many years.  The Cardinals organization are going all out to try to make sure that the loyal Cardinal fans have a team to root for in the playoffs this year.  This year Ken Whisenhunt has shown how serious he is about the Cardinals becoming a winner by starting Kurt Warner over Matt Leinart .   Kurt Warner just has a better grasp of the offensive, and the players love his leadership.  With starting wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, the Cardinals have arguable the best starting receiving corps in the NFL.  Even though Boldin tweeked a hamstring, he should be able to play against the Jets today.  Larry Fitzgerald is an absoulute beast at wide receiver.  He catches everything that it is in his direction and has a work ethic that is second to none.  He is not a future star in the NFL, Fitzgerald is a star right now.   Add in Steve Breaston, rookie Early Doucet, and others the wide receiver group can cause grave damage to a secondary.  How Matt Leinhart couldn’t succeed like he was expected with this group his a true head scratcher?  Edgerrin James is the solid veteran running back who is as much a threat catching the ball out of the backfield as he his carrying it.  He has support with surprising running back Tim Hightower, who has done a commendable job carrying the load with James.  The offense of weapons that this team has will have it in the running for highest scoring team in the NFL.

The defensive side of the ball is not as strong as the offensive. Last year injuries really hit this unit harder than usual.  The Arizona Cardinals addressed the defensive needs in the draft by using their first and second draft pick on cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie out of Tennessee St. and Calais Campbell out of Miami(Florida) respectfully. The Cardinals defense has been vastly improved this year even though it has only been a three game evaluation with the San Francisco 49ers, the Miami Dolphins, and the Washington Redskins. This game will be the biggest test of the young season for the new and improved Arizona Cardinal defense. Even though the team lost last week to the Redskins, the defense played admirable by not allowing a hundred yard runner or receiver with players like Clinton Portis,  Santana Moss, and the versatile Antwaan Randle El on the opposite side of the field.

The biggest component of today’s game between the Jets and Cardinals is how much will Brett Farve play today.  If he does play the whole game  it should be a very competitive contest.  If not the Jets will have an extremely big challenge of trying to keep up with the Cardinals.  Both teams are well coached so this should be very entertaining.  I expect the Cardinals to win the game today.

The cardinal name derived from the uniforms they were presented with worn faded uniforms that looked like a cardinal red from jerseys from the University of Chicago. In 1920 Chicago, like the gangsters of the day there was a loser leaves town game between the cardinals and another football team the Tigers. The Cardinals won the game 6-0. That was one of the few highlights in the Cardinals history. Another highlight was in 1929 when Ernie Nevers scored all the Cardinals teams 40 points against the Chicago Bears. That record still stands to this very day.

While the teams over the years haven’t produced banners of championships, there have been a 8 Hall of Fame players on the Cardinals. One of the all-time great nicknames was Dick “Night Train” Lane who was a corner back and elected to the Football Hall of Fame in 1974 and made seven Pro Bowls. The Cardinals have retired five players numbers which include Larry Wilson 8, Pat Tillman 40, Stan Mauldin 77, J.V. Cain, and Marshall Goldberg 99.

The Arizona Cardinals are the only team to play in a college stadium at Sun-Devil Stadium in Tempe. AZ and Univeristy of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, AZ. The Cardinals have never made a Super Bowl appearance and is only one of four teams who have not including the New Orleans Saints (founded 1966), Houston Texans (founded 2002), and Jacksonville Jaguars (founded 1995).

With a losing tradition more then a winning one, the Cardinals still have support from the fan community in hopes one day the loyalty will be rewarded with a successful season, a playoff win, or even a Super Bowl victory. It has been a grim fifty plus years with very little signs that the team will having winning seasons in the future. In sports, winning can’t last forever, so neither can losing. That is what keeps the fan coming back and cheering for their team year in and year out, the promise of better days to lay ahead.