The Arizona Cardinals don’t need the Tucson market. Home games are routinely sold out. They’re runaway kings of the Phoenix sports scene and, as with coach Bruce Arians, considered cool.
But they gained considerable respect in Tucson last week when they offered Arizona the use of their indoor training facility during monsoon-related issues on campus, and in the wake of the tragic death of UA football player Zach Hemmila.
That was good enough. But the Cardinals went a step beyond, painting a red Arizona script in the end zone and displaying UA logos in the locker room and elsewhere.
What NFL team does that? And on a day’s notice, at that?
Over the years, the Cardinals have never been viewed as Tucson’s team. The Cowboys, Broncos and Steelers probably get the most interest here.
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The only time the Cardinals reached out to Tucson was 2000, when they held a two-day June mini-camp at Arizona Stadium. At the time, the Diamondbacks owned this state and the Suns weren’t far behind.
“The main thing is, we need to think about other ways we can be involved in this community,” team president Michael Bidwill said then. “Frankly, this is something we should have thought of a little bit earlier.”
Bidwill has since transformed the Cardinals from chronic losers to thoughtful winners. It’s not difficult to see why or how.
