With the caveat I might get a "too soon" in response ...
Sports Illustrated got together a blue-ribbon panel (I've always wondered why the blue ribbon; if we are harkening back to the random county fair it just seems like a panel should be on a higher level than that) to discuss and rank the 50 greatest NFL games of the Super Bowl era, which began with the 1966 season. The Cardinals had one game make the list. I will let you guess which one.
There were a few regular season games sprinkled in but mostly, we are talking about postseason games and Super Bowls. That's understandable. The two-part series is broken down into 26-50 and 1-25. The top three:
- The Ice Bowl in 1967, when Bart Starr's QB sneak for a touchdown lifted the Packers over the Cowboys to win the NFL title in Green Bay and into Super Bowl II against the AFL's Oakland Raiders.
- The Immaculate Reception game in 1972, when the Steelers' Franco Harris miraculously caught a ricochet of a pass breakup to score a touchdown on the game's final play to beat the Raiders in Pittsburgh in the divisional round.
- Super Bowl III, when the AFL's Jets upset the NFL's Colts in the AFL's first Super triumph. The Joe Namath guarantee game.
Cardinals-wise, what didn't make the list were two spectacular playoff games against the Packers, both in Arizona. There was the classic 51-45 win for the Cardinals in the Wild Card round of the 2009 season -- Kurt Warner, 5 TD passes, 4 incompletions -- and then the Hail Larry-after-the-Hail-Mary victory over the Packers in the Divisional round of the 2015 season.
What did make the list was the game the Cardinals couldn't quite get. Super Bowl 43. Larry Fitzgerald was not quite enough for the happy ending.
All the entries have a quote not only from a key member of the game (this game had one from someone who officially got his second foot down) but also from someone with league perspective. In this case, it was 50-year NFL league executive Joe Browne.
"Call me an NFL idealist, but I believe all longtime NFL owners and their fans should experience the joy of at least one Super Bowl win," Browne said. "This was Cards' owner Bill Bidwill's chance. However, two minutes is a football lifetime."
Indeed.
