Arizona Cardinals Jerseys – Are You a Fan?
Arizona Cardinals were founded in Chicago in 1898, as Morgan Athletic Club, making them the oldest professional football team in America. They became members of NFL in 1920, and along the Chicago Bears, they are the only two original franchises still alive today. In 1960 they moved to St. Louis, where they stayed until 1988, when they moved to their current home in Tempe, Arizona. Cardinals have won two championships, in 1825 and 1947, although the 1925 title is still disputed. They play their games at University of Phoenix Stadium in the northwestern suburb of Phoenix, Glendale. They changed their name to Arizona Cardinals in 1994. Below, we are going to look into Arizona Cardinals jerseys, so if you are a fan of this team, you may want to pay attention to this article.
Arizona Cardinals colors are red, white and black. They first used the red jerseys in 1901, when Chris O’Brien bought them. Various red and white combinations are mostly used since then. The jersey can be white or red, pants either white with red stripes on the sides or red with white stripes, with white helmets. Alternate design has numbers on side of the shoulders, opposite to the top of the shoulders as usual. In 1998, after their move to Tempe, they added Arizona flag to the jersey sleeves.
2006 marks first major change in uniform appearance in century. Cardinals try to end their losing streak of 6 games by wearing red pants for the first time against the Green Bay Packers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and they lost the game 31-14. Then they tried all red combination against Dallas and lost again, 27-10. For the remainder of the season, Cardinals never wore red pants again, and won 4 out of the last seven games.
Despite disappointing results, they decided to give red pants another chance next season and wore them again on several games in 2007. On three home games they tried all red combination again. Apparently, they weren’t pleased with the results, as they didn’t wear red paints once in 2008 season.
As many teams that play their home games in warmer climate, Cardinals always wore white jerseys when playing home. This left guest to suffer in darker jerseys, as Arizona sun shone mercilessly upon them.
This tradition came to end in 2006, with Cardinals moving to University of Phoenix Stadium, due to the fact that it has movable roof, which made this tactics obsolete. They changed their home jerseys to red, and even though they occasionally play in white ones, officially home jersey is red.
Surprisingly, the team put their logo on helmets for the first time in 1960, even though the cardinal bird was their trade mark since 1947. The logo was redesigned in 2005, giving it more menacing look. However, it was instantly nicknamed parakeet by their opponents.
The team mascot, Big Red, is one of the best known mascots in NFL. According to his official club biography, he was hatched on October 4, 1998. He’s 6 foot 4 inches tall, with a 7 foot wingspan. Big Red never misses Cardinals home game and is a great inspiration to both players and the fans.
