The Arizona Cardinals are the second-oldest consecutive pro football organization in North America.
The Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League began in 1873, 152 years ago. The Cardinals’ first season of operation was in 1898, for a span of 127 years.
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The NFL began as the “American Professional Football Association” in 1920. Two years later, it was renamed the “National Football League.”
Although league records and stats have been
kept since 1920, there is a period commonly called “the Modern Era” of the league, which began in the 1970 season. Not that the game of football was altered or made any significant changes in that season. It was the year that the NFL and the American Football League (AFL) merged into one huge entity.
The NFL had 16 clubs, whereas the AFL had 10 teams. So, in 1970, a 26-team league began. Today, that number has swelled to 32 cities. Most likely, another round of expansion will commence at some point, and eventually, it will swell to a 40-franchise union.
The Cardinals are currently 3-13-0 and sit in the basement of the NFC West Division, the league’s toughest. This year, three of the four clubs made the playoffs.
Arizona’s final game on the 2025 schedule is against division foe the Los Angeles Rams in Southern California. The Rams won their first meeting four weeks ago.
The Cardinals can change their franchise history against Los Angeles.
There have been several horrible seasons in the record books for the Cardinals. During World War II, with depleted rosters, the 1943 and 1944 teams both went 0-10-0. In 1939, the Chicago Cardinals went 1-10-0. Other bad records for Chicago include 1-9-1 (1933), 1-9-0 (1945), and 1-5-0 (1928), and six seasons with just two wins throughout franchise history.
And different years have garnered 13-loss seasons: 2000 (3-13-0), 2018 (3-13-0), 2022 (4-13-0), and 2023 (4-13-0).
If Arizona loses to the Rams this weekend, it will become the very first roster in the 127-year history of the Cardinals to have lost 14 games in a single season.
Of course, in today’s NFL, they play a 17-game season. But both the 2022 and 2023 Cardinals had the opportunities to lose 14 games and did not.
Stay tuned.
