Showing Your Cards

Who would have guessed that the Arizona Cardinals will host the NFC Championship Game next week?

Before last week's victory over the Atlanta Falcons, the Cardinals haven't won a playoff game since 1998 (against my beloved Dallas Cowboys, FYI), and haven't hosted a home playoff game since 1947. In fact, since the expansion of the NFL in the 1970s', they were the only NFC team that had not advanced to the NFC Championship Game.

Until this year.

The Cardinals have been plagued by their inability to play decently anywhere far away from home, and were trounced by the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles at the east coast this season. They advanced to the playoff as the fourth seed thanks to winning the mediocre NFC West, and got to host next week's NFC Championship Game only because the sixth-seeded Eagles' upset the top-seeded New York Giants away from home.

The Cardinals' success this season has long been overdue. With their so-and-so regular season record the past seasons, they have secured good draft positions and, to their credit, have made excellent uses of it. Their solid draft choices include star receiving tandem of Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald, running back Tim Hightower, defensive lineman Darnell Dockett, linebacker Karlos Dansby, as well as cornerbacks Antrel Rolle and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. With such a solid draft record, it's only a matter of time for them to have a breakout season.

Up next? A re-match against the Eagles, probably the hottest team right now led by Donovan McNabb who has been rejuvenated since his benching against the Baltimore Ravens a month or so ago. Many predict that the Eagles would emulate the Giants' feat last season by riding on a hot streak all the way to the Superbowl victory as the ultimate "Road Warrior".

But I would put my money on the Cardinals, who have so many talented receivers and a veteran quarterback in Kurt Warner to do some serious damage. And with their running game starting to gather momentum in their two playoff victories thus far, they would go on to beat the Ravens in Superbowl XLIII, in a battle of the birds.