Arizona Cardinals

I WOULD START this with "no disrespect to the Arizona Cardinals," but there is no way to respectfully write this. The Eagles will not lose to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game. Enough with all of the breakdowns based on logic, statistics and current status of the teams; there is a larger metaphysical aspect in play. I know the Arizona Cardinals are a better team than the one the Eagles carved up on Thanksgiving night to begin their wild ride to the NFC Championship Game.

WE'VE NEVER PARTICULARLY cared for Bill Cowher as an NFL analyst, and now we have even more reason to dislike him. When asked if he thought the Eagles or Cardinals would win the NFC Championship and advance to the Super Bowl, Cowher replied: "I don't think there is any question [the Eagles] can go in there and win. Will they? I don't think they will. I know you talk about the highlight that was Thanksgiving Day, but that was a short week, having to come to the East Coast . . . But this is a different Arizona Cardinals team . . . This is a football team that is running the football.

St. Louis Rams quarterback Marc Bulger told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch after Sunday's game against the Cardinals that he would start Monday against the visiting Eagles. "I'll go . . . Yeah, I'll go," said Bulger, who has missed two games and most of another with a bruised throwing shoulder. Coach Mike Martz made it clear after Sunday's 31-7 loss to the Arizona Cardinals that the lion's share of blame should be directed at the quarterback position - and mainly at Bulger's understudy, Chris Chandler.

   Which quarterback would you rather have on your team this weekend?    Former Eagle Kevin Kolb got off to a good start with his new team, the Arizona Cardinals, and Eagles starter Michael Vick earned a victory. Only former Eagle Donovan McNabb struggled with his new team, the Minnesota Vikings.    Here is a look at how Kolb, Vick and McNabb compare after the first week of the season: Rk Player    Comp-Att Pct Yds Avg TD Int Lng 20+ Sck Rate 3 Kevin Kolb         18-27 66.7 309 11.4 2 0 70T 6 2 130.0 17 Michael Vick      14-32 43.8 187 5.8 2 0 41 4 3 83.7 28 Donovan McNabb     7-15 46.7 39 2.6 1 1 12 0 2 47.9

Everyone who knows me knows I attended Arizona State University for two years. I talk about it, almost to the point of embarrassment, at almost any opportunity. Two weeks ago, I was talking to family members from Ireland about Arizona State, and about a guy who had played football while I was there: Sun Devil number 42, Pat Tillman. I met Pat in the fall of 1996. One warm autumn afternoon, one of my coworkers and I sat around the student government offices with a few iced teas and brainstormed the final details of homecoming weekend.

It might be the "rumor du jour," but Chicago officials reportedly aren't counting it out. The city, struggling over facilities with the Chicago Bears, says it will do everything it can to keep a pro football team in town - even if that team is the Arizona Cardinals. "We're still trying to convince the Bears to stay, but we'll keep our options open," an unidentified mayoral aide told the Chicago Tribune. The newspaper reported yesterday that city officials have talked secretly with the Arizona Cardinals about moving back here if the Bears moved out of Soldier Field.

Picture four offensive linemen squeezed into an old Volkswagen Beetle and you have an idea how tight things are in the NFC East. For the Eagles, it's nothing that a few wins wouldn't cure, but that's something that was true three weeks ago, and they haven't won since. With four games remaining, the Eagles (7-5) are tied for second with the Dallas Cowboys, one game behind the Washington Redskins. The Arizona Cardinals - surprise, surprise - have moved to within one game of second place at 6-6. What's dangerous for the Eagles is that they're losing ground in the tiebreakers.

IT'S FUN TO KICK BUDDY RYAN AROUND Things weren't moving fast enough for ol' Billy Bidwill, the Cardinals' perfectly inept owner, so he . . . hired Buddy Ryan. The team changed its name to the Arizona Cardinals, season-ticket sales jumped off the chart and Buddy pronounced there was "a winner in town. " Oh really. Where? The Cardinals are 0-3, and the offense . . . didn't score a point against Cleveland. The starting quarterback, Steve Beuerlein, went from No. 1 a week ago to inactive, and has been replaced by two has-beens, Jim McMahon and Jay Schroeder.

The NFL's career rushing leader believes he still has some yards left in his 33-year-old legs. The Arizona Cardinals hope so, too. Released by Dallas last month, Emmitt Smith agreed to terms with the Cardinals yesterday, moving from one of the league's most storied franchises to one of its most downtrodden. "Emmitt will start," coach Dave McGinnis said, adding that Smith also will help break in Marcel Shipp, who led the Cardinals in rushing last season in his second year. A starting job was one of the things Smith had sought and one of the things the Cowboys couldn't guarantee when they released him Feb. 27 after 13 seasons and 17,162 yards.

Pat Tillman Jr., the charismatic defensive back for the Arizona Cardinals, startled his franchise and his family when in 2002 he announced that he was turning down a $3.6 million NFL contract in order to join the Army Rangers for service in Afghanistan and Iraq. He and his brother Kevin were in the same platoon. In April 2004 news broke that Cpl. Tillman had died in an ambush by 20 Taliban fighters. Early reports were that he had risked his life so others could live. Posthumously, he was awarded the Silver Star.

Out of the race to nab Peyton Manning, the Arizona Cardinals are moving on with quarterback Kevin Kolb. The former future of the Eagles remained on the Arizona roster at a 4 p.m. deadline Friday, ensuring him a $7 million roster bonus that the team would not have paid if they had landed Manning. Coach Ken Whisenhunt issued a statement acknowledging that "acquiring Peyton Manning is no longer an option for us. " Also on Friday, the Cardinals agreed to terms on a five-year contract for offensive tackle Levi Brown, who had been released by Arizona on Tuesday in a salary cap move.

ONE OF their starting wide receivers (DeSean Jackson) wasn't playing because he overslept his alarm clock on Saturday. Their other starting wide receiver (Jeremy Maclin) was in and out and in and out of the game because of a shoulder injury, a hamstring injury, and the absorption of a general beating. Their quarterback (Michael Vick) was so inaccurate on this day that he could not hit the broad side of Alabama with some of his passes. So, naturally, the Eagles forgot to give the ball to LeSean McCoy.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Patrick Peterson insists he first began returning punts as a 7-year-old. "I used to field punts and take them to the house in Pop Warner as well," he said with that big, bright grin that's so familiar to everyone who has been around him since he joined the Arizona Cardinals. Peterson probably carried himself with the same swagger, too, not really arrogance but a supreme belief in his ability. "He walks around," teammate Darnell Dockett joked, "like it's his world and we're all just livin' in it. " It's the self-confidence that led the Arizona rookie to watch the ball float into his arms at his 1-yard line, then break tackles and spin away from the last would-be defender in a 99-yard return that gave the Cardinals an overtime victory over St. Louis last Sunday.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Patrick Peterson insists he first began returning punts as a 7-year-old. "I used to field punts and take them to the house in Pop Warner as well," he said with that big, bright grin that's so familiar to everyone who has been around him since he joined the Arizona Cardinals. Peterson probably carried himself with the same swagger, too, not really arrogance but a supreme belief in his ability. "He walks around," teammate Darnell Dockett joked, "like it's his world and we're all just livin' in it. " It's the self-confidence that led the Arizona rookie to watch the ball float into his arms at his 1-yard line, then break tackles and spin away from the last would-be defender in a 99-yard return that gave the Cardinals an overtime victory over St. Louis last Sunday.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Four times this season the Arizona Cardinals had found a way to lose a close game at the end. A play here, a play there, and the outcomes would have been different. Then came Sunday's game against St. Louis, where those failures, in the words of coach Ken Whisenhunt, "pale in comparison" to what the Cardinals had to pull off to escape with a 19-13 overtime victory. Special teams were truly special at the end. First, Calais Campbell blocked what would have been the game-winning field goal at the end of regulation.

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Patrick Peterson sure delivered a dramatic end to his team's six-game losing streak. The rookie cornerback returned a punt 99 yards for a touchdown in overtime to give the Arizona Cardinals a stunning, 19-13 victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday. Peterson fielded the ball at the 1. He evaded and bounced off tacklers over the next 30 yards or so, then outran everyone, striding the last few yards in celebration of his third punt-return TD of the season as Arizona (2-6)

LANDOVER, Md. - Two games into his career as the starting quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, Kevin Kolb is the same question mark he was for 4 years with the Eagles. Last week in his debut with the Cardinals, Kolb was terrific, completing 18 of 27 passes for 309 yards with two touchdowns. He had a passer rating of 130.0 in an Arizona victory. Kolb looked like a star. Yesterday, in a 22-21 loss to the Washington Redskins, Kolb wasn't as efficient. It wasn't that Kolb played poorly or was the reason Arizona lost.

   Which quarterback would you rather have on your team this weekend?    Former Eagle Kevin Kolb got off to a good start with his new team, the Arizona Cardinals, and Eagles starter Michael Vick earned a victory. Only former Eagle Donovan McNabb struggled with his new team, the Minnesota Vikings.    Here is a look at how Kolb, Vick and McNabb compare after the first week of the season: Rk Player    Comp-Att Pct Yds Avg TD Int Lng 20+ Sck Rate 3 Kevin Kolb         18-27 66.7 309 11.4 2 0 70T 6 2 130.0 17 Michael Vick      14-32 43.8 187 5.8 2 0 41 4 3 83.7 28 Donovan McNabb     7-15 46.7 39 2.6 1 1 12 0 2 47.9

As unlikely as it may seem, Kevin Kolb could show up for Eagles training camp on Wednesday. He is under contract and thus required to be at Lehigh University. How uncomfortable would that be? The Eagles made it no secret that they were prepared to trade Kolb, and speculation around the NFL had the backup quarterback being dealt sometime Tuesday when teams were first permitted to make trades. But when the end of the day arrived, Kolb was still an Eagle, and the team's options for dealing the 26-year-old appeared to be dwindling.

On April 22, 2004, Pat Tillman was shot and killed in a mountain pass in Afghanistan. The initial reports said that Tillman - the Arizona Cardinals defensive safety who left the NFL and enlisted in the Army after the attacks of 9/11 - had died while valiantly defending his fellow Rangers when they were caught in a Taliban ambush. It was a tragic story, and a great one. Only problem: It wasn't true. Five weeks later, the Army announced that Tillman had been killed by U.S. gunfire, a terrible mistake attributed to "the fog of war. " But the spokesmen stuck to their story about the ambush, and the football star's valor in the heat of battle.