How bad is the club’s history? The Chicago Cardinals had ten straight losing seasons from 1936-45, a stretch that included 29 consecutive losses and two 0-10 seasons. (Interestingly, it was during this stretch when player shortages due to World War II forced the Cardinals to merge with Pittsburgh. The team, still awful, was known as “Card-Pitt”; most people preferred to call them the “Carpets.”) The 1947 title and 1948 title-game loss, were aberrations of success. The club slipped back into the doldrums for much of the ‘50s before pulling up the stakes and heading to St. Louis. Still, there were no playoff appearances until 1974 and again in ’75. The team slipped into the expanded tournament after the strike-shortened 1982 season, then slipped off the radar again until that 1998 upset of Dallas. It’s arguable that the Chicago-St. Louis-Arizona Cardinals’ most famous moment of the past half-century was Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s role as a wide receiver for the team, in Jerry Maguire. (You’re chuckling. But it’s possible.) This is typical Cardinals-style success. Yeah, he won an Oscar for the role, but it is almost universally looked upon as an aberration, like the Cards’ two NFL titles. If 1947 was like Jerry Maguire, then the years since are like a continuous loop of Snow Dogs and What Dreams May Come.

When the team you root for is being compared to Salieri and Cuba Gooding, Jr., it’s not a good sign. But these are bright, sunny days for fans in the desert. Hell, even John McCain is smiling again. At least, I think he’s swearing less. These are not your father’s Arizona Cardinals. For starters, they have two of the best receivers in football, Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald. Commentators and writers are suddenly anointing Fitzgerald as the best receiver in the game, and not without some merit. Fitzgerald’s been on a tear since the postseason began, with 6 receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown vs Atlanta, 8 receptions for 166 yards and a TD vs Carolina, and 9 receptions for 152 yards and 3 touchdowns against Philadelphia:

Sick.

Arizona’s rookie cornerback, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (and I can’t wait to hear Emmitt Smith bungle that name on ESPN), is blossoming into something fearsome himself. He had a so-so day against Atlanta’s Roddy White in the wildcard round (White caught 11 passes and a touchdown). But in the game at Carolina, Rodgers-Cromartie was assigned to Steve Smith, a receiver who rivals Fitzgerald as one of the game’s best. Smith had burned the young corner in a regular season matchup, but in the playoffs, Rodgers-Cromartie (with some safety help) kept the ball away from Smith, who caught just two passes, neither for a score. Rodgers-Cromartie also collected one of Jake Delhomme’s (ridiculous) five interceptions in the big upset.

Of course, the big storyline for this team in Tampa will be quarterback Kurt Warner, finding a second act after years in the wilderness. Even casual fans might remember Warner’s story with the 1999 St. Louis Rams: How Warner had been out of football, stocking shelves at a supermarket, when he tried out for the Rams; how he fought for a backup spot in preseason only to find himself the starter in week one, when Trent Green was knocked out; and, of course, how Warner led the Rams to an unlikely win over the Titans in the Super Bowl. Warner is 37 now, but his shelf-stocking story follows him everywhere. It’s up there in the rags-to-riches pantheon with Oprah smoking crack and Jewel living in a van. But that doesn’t mean we won’t hear it over and over again until we feel switching to “American Idol” for some originality. This is what happens when the NFL goes 13 days without a game.