A New Low For The Big Red

J.T. Smith of the St. Louis football Cardinals makes a catch in a 43-17 loss at San Francisco in 1986..

Seattle 58 Arizona Cardinals 0.
Wow.  Worst loss in Cardinal franchise history.  And that’s saying something.

I grew up as a St. Louis football Cardinal fan. I know all about ugly losses by the Big Red.  Turns out that I saw most of ‘em.

I had the misfortune of being the board operator at a football Cardinal radio network station for a 45-7 loss at Washington in 1983. That was one of the longest afternoons ever. I hated the Redskins in those days. . I still instinctively root against them even though I'm no longer a football Cardinal fan. Likewise for the Dallas Cowboys..

I was home from college and saw/heard a 52-13 loss to the Eagles in 1981. I was a student at Bradley—Peoria is smack in the middle of Bears country—and I was happy to get away from Bears games on TV when I came home for the weekend. (The ’81 Bears even worse than the Big Red).  I thought that not having to see the Bears that weekend would be a good thing. Wrong.

Then there was the 42-6 loss late in 1979 to the Chicago Bears. I was taking classes on the Quincy College campus amongst Bears fans in those days. That wasn’t any fun at all.

I also watched the infamous 55-14 Thanksgiving Day game loss to Miami in 1977.  That was the game that marked the end of the Cardiac Cardinals era. A week or two later, the Big Red managed to provide Tampa Bay’s second win in franchise history.   Just a couple weeks earlier, the ’77 Big Red were one of the hottest teams in the NFL.  Jimmy The Greek was touting them at mid-season as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.   Then came the Miami Meltdown. I seem to remember something about Conrad Dobler chucking his helmet at a Dolphin and getting in huge trouble with the Commissioner’s office.

After the Cardinals moved to Arizona, I didn’t mind it a bit when the Big Red got torched.  Actually, I enjoyed a couple of the blowouts---especially the 49-0 loss to the Chiefs at Arrowhead in 2002. Getting shut out by that Chiefs team wasn’t easy. Chiefs defensive coordinator Greg Robinson was well on the way to turning the vaunted Chiefs defenses of the 90’s into a league laughingstock, yet they shut out the football Cardinals.  I listened to that one driving back from Thanksgiving with the family in Colorado. Took a nice chunk out of the long drive across Kansas on US 36.

A quick check of http://www.pro-football-reference.com this morning turned up this list of notable blowouts of the Chicago/St. Louis/Arizona football Cardinals.

2003— 38-0 home loss to Seattle &  44-6 loss @ Cleveland
2002 49-0 loss @ Kansas City on Dec 1st.
2000 48-7 @ Dallas
1992 41-3 @ Washington
1989 37-0 Denver
1988 44-7 @ Giants
1986  43-17 @San Francisco
1983 45-7 @ Washington
1981 52-13 Philadelphia
1979 42-6 @ Chicago
1977 55-14 Miami
1969 49-6 @ Giants
1944 44-7 Bears (as Card-Pitt. Chicago Cardinals and the Steelers combined their franchises due to WW-II)
1941 53-7 @ Bears