Fans in Phoenix love Cardinals and Cowboys

There's nothing to worry about, Tony. They like you in Arizona. (Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

PHOENIX – Being a sports fan here in the Valley of the Sun is often a very different experience than in other U.S. cities.

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This town doesn’t have a whole lot of professional sports history or tradition, for one thing. Its baseball team has a world championship but is only 13 years in existence. Its NBA franchise is the oldest pro franchise in what is now the sixth-largest city in America, but the Suns don’t have a title in 43 years of history. The NHL team has been to the playoffs but has only been around since the mid-1990s, and seems always in danger of leaving town due to ownership issues.

And then there are the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL. Once the laughing stock of the league for the organization’s ineptness, the Cards finally went to a Super Bowl in 2009 after winning the 2008 NFC title.

Expectations for success have risen considerably since then, yet the Cardinals are 4-7 going into this week’s games.

There’s a buzz about the Valley this week – it’s Cowboys Week. America’s Team is coming to town, which all but ensures that University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale will be awash in… blue and white Sunday afternoon.

As in Cowboys colors. Oh sure, there will be Cardinals red and plenty of it, but long before Phoenix was a Cardinals town, it was a Cowboys town. And in sports, allegiances tend to last.

Exhibit A: My father-in-law is a native of Phoenix who grew up watching Cowboys games on TV on Sundays. With no team here, the Cowboys were on every week. Many in his generation and even younger – the Cards arrived in 1988 -- became Cowboys fans, and passed the love down to their children or just can’t switch to Arizona.

Exhibit B: The guy selling NFL jerseys out of a canopy down the street from where I live prominently features a white Tony Romo No. 9 hanging for motorists to see. He’s got Cardinals jerseys, too, but that white is the first thing that pops out.

Exhibit C: Many people here come from somewhere else. They bring with them the support of their hometown or home state teams.

Consequently, when the Green Bay Packers, Oakland Raiders, Pittsburgh Steelers and especially the Cowboys – teams with broad national appeal – come to town, there aren’t as many Cardinals fans in the seats. It was even worse a problem at Sun Devil Stadium, the first home of the Cardinals, where the visiting team had an even larger support base because tickets were so easy to come by.

Exhibit D: A few of Arizona State University’s best players in school history went on to play for the Cowboys – namely Danny White, Bob Bruenig and Jim Jeffcoat. ASU has been around a lot longer than the pro teams in town, and local folks remember the Tom Landry days with those guys.

“I hope we have more fans than Cowboy fans this week,” Cardinals star wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald said Wednesday. “Those guys travel well. Wherever they go, they’re going to have a following with them.”
How many NFL teams even have to deal with the number of visiting team fans? It just comes with the territory in Arizona.

Cowboys merchandise is sold right alongside Cardinals stuff in stores. Sports bars are full of Cowboys fans who don’t want to watch the Cardinals.

“Every time we play the Cowboys, it’s always going to be a crazy atmosphere,” Fitzgerald said. “But it’s fun playing against them because they’re the Cowboys. They’re America’s Team. They have the most fans in the game."

The Cowboys are clearly popular among this area’s Latinos. I can’t go a mile from home without seeing a truck with a star sticker on the back window. My brother-in-law has a T-shirt that says, in certain terms with big bold letters, “Forget the Rest,” with a star over a letter in a commonly used four-letter expletive.

My sister-in-law and her family even went on a fan pilgrimage to Dallas a few weeks ago to see a game at Cowboys Stadium, and came home with all kinds of merchandise.

Viva Los Vaqueros, I guess. Dallas coach Jason Garrett appreciates the support. So does Romo, the Cowboys quarterback and one of the premier faces in the game.

“We have a definite contingent out there that shows up, which is nice,” Romo said, “but there’s still a lot of Cardinals fans that do a great job in those games so it’s going to be loud either way.”