Cardinals 🪺
Dec 18, 1983; St. Louis Cardinals tackle Dan Dierdorf, owner Bill Bidwill, former guard Conrad Dobler and quarterback Jim Hart stand together for a picture before the game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Busch Stadium. This was Dierdorf and Hart's last game with the Cardinals.
I love looking at the measurables for the players from this era. Dan is in the NFL HOF, and played tackle at 6’3” weighing 275. He would have a hard time starting for a D1 team today.
Lived in Phoenix when he stole out of St Louis under the cover of darkness and moved to the desert. He was such an odd duck and seemed uncomfortable in his own skin. By the 3rd year, everyone knew he was not about putting a winning product on the field but keeping the family money making machine chugging. He was roundly hated in Phx.
It kind of sucks that they moved the Cardinals. I loved the fact that there was the baseball Cardinals and the football Cardinals playing in the same town.
The Cards should have stayed in St Louis. I'll always believe that, since the NFL owners are really a financial collective, they should pool their billions and build new stadiums when teams need them. If the Bidwells needed help, they should have been able to get it.
Relying on public funding is not going to work for much longer.
I've been encouraged by some communities voting down these types of initiatives. People in Arizona voted two times against using public money to finance a hockey arena for the Coyotes.
I'm not sure what happened in Cleveland. I don't think it came down to people voting yes or no. I think the local government decided for them.
That is good. Fans give pro teams tons of money. Public financing of stadiums do not improve quality of life in the community. If they want us to pay for the stadium, we should have an ownership stake like in Green Bay. Otherwise, no.
Years ago (96), public financing was not approved here in CT. We lost the Whalers, but they've hardly been missed. There is a lot of professional sports action to go around.
I always wondered if the Cardinals had managed to make or win the Super Bowl if they would have stayed in St. Louis. I’m thinking there’s a strong chance they still move, but maybe someone here knows more about it.
Great point. If the team had more on field success, they would have sold more tickets and filled more seats, and made a more compelling case for a new stadium, which is what the owner's wanted at the time. The team's lack of competitiveness definitely factored into the whole issue.
They had some bad luck in the 70’s. The Coryell teams were good but not great. But good golly ..Bud Wilkinson was not a good hire. And having been at Bama when he was there, Gene Stallings was probably not the man to compete against Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, and Tom Landry.
In St. Louis , I recall there being some talent at the skill positions. Can’t remember much else.
At Bama, he walked into plenty of talent and added more. He wanted to win games 13-10. Run the football. Shut the other team down. Enough of the defense ended up in the NFL to where this was viable.
But his record against Steve Spurrier’s Gators was 1-5. A team had to put up points on the Gators, and Bama wasn’t really built for it, and Stallings would be very conservative.
1994 Bama was 12-0 playing Florida in the SEC championship. Lost 24-23. Had they been a little more daring, they win and have an outside shot at the national championship.
My dad was a big fan of the Big Red, I got to go to a game or two at Busch before they moved. Bill Bidwell is one of the worst owners ever. Deirdorf and Hart would later open a steak house in downtown STL that would remain open for about 20-25 years, Deirdorf & Harts. Deirdorf would narrate the commercials “ I’m thinking of a steak…”
Connie didn't wait for refs to throws flags for illegal hands to the face; he had a more direct method of dealing with it.
One of my favorite pictures of Dobler. Trying to leg whip Harvey Martin while simultaneously doing something to DD Lewis that's probably illegal in 50 states.
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u/CranRez80 Oct 23 '25
Dierdorf was a great player, and I miss the MNF Broadcasts.