As the season draws near there will be plenty of talk about the Cardinals' ability to play well the year after losing the Super Bowl. It hasn’t been a good omen in the recent past – of the 10 Super Bowl runners-up before the Cards, eight failed to make the playoffs the following year and the other two won a total of one playoff game.
So ESPN the magazine got Larry Fitzgerald on the subject, writing a story about him calling three NFL peers – Hines Ward, Mushin Muhammad and Richard Seymour – for advice. The story is written in the first person (available here if you have access to the ESPN Insider) and Fitz clearly knows the uphill battle.
"Problem is, in the NFL, going from second-best to best is nearly impossible," Fitz writes. "They call it the Super Bowl hangover. Lose the big game one year, and you're toast the next. Even teams who win it all can't get back (except the '03 Pats, of course). Free agency, contract issues, coaches getting hired away and injuries -- they all take their toll on Super Bowl teams."
Fitzgerald continued to work hard when the veterans were around. I don't think he will have a problem personally coming back strong.
