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There is nothing like being a suffering Chicago/'St. Louis/ Arizona Cardinal fan. Their history goes back a little over 100 years and are one of three remaining charter clubs, along with the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. They easily have the NFL's worst record of all time in NFL history; 588-800-41. They have won two NFL championships, 1925 and 1947. Until the Raiders moved to Las Vegas, they were the only club that I can recall who played in three different cities; Chicago, St. Louis, and Phoenix. The Bidwell family had ownership of the franchise for nearly eight decades.
When I think of stability in a franchise, I think of Pittsburgh. From 1969 to this current season, there have been only three head coaches-Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher, and Mike Tomlin.
With the Cardinals, they've had 15 head coaches from 1977 to this current season. And the best head coach they ever (Don Coryell) had got locked into a season long argument with ownership over how poorly the players were treated. The Bidwell family had always been known as cheapskates but by this time the players started to play out their options because of insulting contract offers. But what got Coryell really steamed was that ownership didn't give two craps what Coryell was suggesting on how to improve the team through the draft. He had no input-none.
And that cost the franchise in the long run. The Bud Wilkinson experiment was a flop and then some good football men got run off the job; people like Jim Hanifan and Gene Stallings. By 1986 they were playing at home to about 35,000 people, and in the 1987 season they hit bottom. Their home game against the New Orleans Saints on October 11th drew a whopping crowd of 11,795. By 1988 they were bound for Phoenix. St. Louis had enough of the Bidwell family and for good reason.
Steelers is the model of coaching stability. You figure, Tomlin is writing his own ticket. I doubt the Rooneys will ever fire him.
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