Arizona Cardinals

Lore & Background

The team was established in Chicago in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club, and joined the NFL as a charter member on September 17, 1920. The Cardinals are the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the United States, and, along with the Chicago Bears, are the only NFL charter member franchises still in operation. In 1960, the team moved to St. Louis, where it was commonly referred to as the "Football Cardinals", the "Gridbirds", or the "Big Red" to avoid confusion with Major League Baseball's (MLB) St. Louis Cardinals.

Before the 1988 season, the team moved to Tempe, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, where it played home games for the next 18 seasons at Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University. In 2006, the team moved to their current home field in suburban Glendale. Their executive offices and training facility remain in Tempe, although they are moving them to north Phoenix in 2028. From 1988 to 2012 (except 2005, when they trained in Prescott), the Cardinals conducted their annual summer training camp at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff.

In 2013, the Cardinals moved their training camp to their home field, then called University of Phoenix Stadium, now State Farm Stadium. The Cardinals have won two NFL championships, both while the team was in Chicago. The first, in 1925, was disputed by supporters of the Pottsville Maroons. Their second, and the first to be won in a championship game, came in 1947, nearly two decades before the first Super Bowl.

They returned to the title game to defend in 1948, but lost the rematch 7–0 in a snowstorm in Philadelphia. The team has since suffered many losing seasons and, as of 2025, has the longest active championship drought in North American sports at 78 seasons. The next longest drought is MLB's Cleveland Guardians, who last won the World Series in 1948; 1 year after the Cardinals won their last championship. The team's all-time win–loss record (including regular season and playoff games) at the conclusion of the 2025 season was ( in the regular season, in the playoffs).

They have been to the playoffs 11 times and have won seven playoff games, including three in the 2008–09 NFL playoffs. During that season, they won their only NFC Championship Game since the 1970 AFL–NFL merger, and reached Super Bowl XLIII, losing 27–23 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Reader's Guide

The franchise dates to 1898, when a neighborhood group gathered to play on the South Side of Chicago, calling themselves the Morgan Athletic Club. Chicago painting and building contractor Chris O'Brien acquired the team, which he moved to Normal Field on Racine Avenue. The team was known as the Racine Normals until 1901, when O'Brien bought used jerseys from the University of Chicago. After he described the faded maroon clothing as "Cardinal red", the team became the Racine Street Cardinals.

Eventually in 1920, the team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (APFA), which was rechristened the National Football League (NFL) two years later. The team entered the league as the Racine Cardinals, but changed their name to the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 to avoid confusion with the Horlick-Racine Legion, who entered the league the same year. In 1925, the Cardinals were awarded the NFL Championship after the Pottsville Maroons were suspended for playing a game in what was deemed "another team's territory".

Having beat the Cardinals in a head-to-head game earlier in the season, the Pottsville Maroons won their extra game against the University of Notre Dame, helping them finish the year with the same record as the Cardinals. The Cardinals were also guilty of breaking NFL rules by scheduling two additional games against the Hammond Pros and the Milwaukee Badgers, both of whom had already disbanded for the season. The game against the Badgers spurred a scandal when the Badgers filled out their roster with four high school players, in violation of NFL rules.

During the post-World War II years, the team reached two straight NFL finals against the Philadelphia Eagles, winning in 1947 (eight months after Charles Bidwill's death) but losing the following year. In the late 1950s, after years of bad seasons and losing fans to their crosstown rivals, the Chicago Bears, the Cardinals were almost bankrupt, and owner Violet Bidwill Wolfner became interested in moving the team to a new city. Due to the formation of the rival American Football League, the NFL allowed Bidwill to move the team to St. Louis, Missouri, where they became the St. Louis Cardinals.

They were locally called the "Big Red", the "Gridbirds" or the "Football Cardinals" to avoid confusion with the local baseball team of the same name. During the Cardinals' 28-year stay in St.

Did You Know?

• The team has won two NFL championships, both while in Chicago (1925 and 1947).
• The Cardinals are the only NFL team that has never lost a playoff game at home (5–0 record).