Sure, the Cardinals have created excitement during this playoff run, but you hope it's not too much excitement. Lewis Jarrett and Waldo Salazar may have other thoughts. Both men are huge Cardinals fans, and both suffered heart attacks on days they were watching Cardinal playoff games.

Salazar (top picture below) came first, and the Cardinals might have saved his life. Normally, Salazar watches Cardinals game by himself in his bedroom with the door closed. "I tell my family not to bother me," he said. In this case, however, he had a chance to see the Cards-Falcons Wild Card game in person, thanks to his nephew. And right before the game started, he suffered his attack. Paramedics immediately came to his aid. He was later given a pacemaker, and he said doctors told him he was basically dead for 10 minutes. Had he been behind his closed bedroom door, he likely wouldn't have been found in time.

Jarrett, from Globe, at least saw the entire Cardinals win against Carolina in a sports bar. "Rooting like crazy," Jarrett (bottom picture below) said he must have gotten carried away. He felt a pain in his chest coming home, and soon had to be airlifted to Phoenix to have double-bypass surgery. But Jarrett is a fan; he was released from the hospital Sunday morning and immediately went to his brother-in-law's house to watch the NFC Championship.

Both men had a chance to visit the Cards' Tempe facility Monday. Their stories just feel like part of the postseason magic the team has enjoyed.

"These guys," Jarrett said of the Cardinals, "they never say die."

Yeah, given the circumstances, I couldn't believe he said it either.