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The Arizona Cardinals grappled with the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday night in a game featuring all that is great and good about the NFL—pinpoint passing, bone-crushing hits, lead swings, mood swings, valor and heartbreak. In the end, the Cardinals won out 34-31 when a 32-yard Chandler Catanzaro field goal attempt proved true as time ran out. The Cat Man would have had to hit from 47 yards were it not for a rare strain of unsportsmanlike conduct on the part of Cincinnati’s defensive tackle Domata Peko, who was flagged 15 yards for yelling out offensive signals in an effort to confuse the Cardinals. Real schoolyard stuff.

Arizona improved to 8-2 and enjoys a three game edge on rival Seattle.

The Cardinals have winged west for an afternoon tilt today with another division rival, the San Francisco 49ers. Arizona is a solid wagering favorite to defeat San Francisco, a team that is barely recognizable from a year ago. Coach Jim Harbaugh fled to Michigan, all-pro players retired or signed elsewhere and starters all over the field have fallen to injury this season. This dumpster fire landed in the lap of former 49ers defensive line coach Jim Tomsula, whose previous experience includes stints with the Division II Catawba College Indians and the Scottish Claymores and Berlin Thunder of NFL Europe. San Francisco sits at 3-7 this season, and the Super Bowl appearance in 2012 is a simply a distant fond remembrance for fans.

San Francisco 49ers fans once included irascible veterans of old Kezar Stadium and the early years of wind-battered Candlestick Park, men who looked to have scuttled out from under the wharves on Sundays like shore crabs, leathered faces pelted by driving December mists, one hand tucked into the pockets of faded metallic gold satin jackets and the other clutching plastic cups of $2.00 Budweiser, which helped numb the senses through back-to-back 2-14 seasons in the late ‘70s before Bill Walsh and Joe Montana flashed onto the scene and lifted the team to preternatural heights in the early ’80s. Those sorts of beer-soaked, relish-stained memories seep into the bones, cementing a fan base and spawning generations of devotees.

Cut to the present.

Pristine, tech-savvy Levi’s Stadium has risen 40 miles south of San Francisco in the cradle of Silicon Valley. Their hearts bruised, some of the old guard swore they’d never visit the foreign environs of Santa Clara and they’ve stayed true to the oath. Were they to make the trek, they’d inch along traffic-choked streets near the stadium, pay a minimum of $40 to park, tailgate only in designated areas and then shuffle to their seats in a stadium sterile enough in which to have one’s spleen removed without preparation or worry.

Those fans likely wouldn’t be lounging in one of the 165 luxury suites half-filled with startup mavens distractedly hatching schemes over Asian steamed buns and muffuletta paninis to convince potential VCs that their vaporware can somehow monetize by Q2. They may well end up squatting on the dreaded, sun-splashed eastern side of the stadium, squinting like an Iditarod musher against the glare and baking to a fine crisp like a sourdough loaf. No, the memories of Candlestick Park sufferings will do just fine, thank you.

Cardinals supporters don’t have to contend with such untidy business. The retractable domed roof of University of Phoenix Stadium helps keep things comfortable. And fans’ psychic wounds don’t run quite as deep. The honeymoon phase that began when the Cardinals moved to Arizona from St. Louis in 1988 helped subpar seasons go down a little easier. And fans’ hearts leapt in 2008, when grocery store bagger turned NFL MVP Kurt Warner nearly led Arizona to its first Super Bowl victory. That marked the beginning of a cultural shift in the mindset of players, coaches, fans and the front office. This team could win, and a championship was no longer out of reach.

Some NFL sages have called today’s Cardinals-49ers contest a trap game. Arizona has had to rally late to notch wins against powerful opponents Seattle and Cincinnati the last two weeks, and some key players are either out or questionable with injuries. San Francisco QB Blaine Gabbert has recently breathed life into the position, and the 49ers are playing at home with nothing to lose. Arizona is a 10 point favorite, but a letdown is plausible.

Arizona coach Bruce Arians will have none of it. Yes—he’s a good family man, he works tirelessly for abused children, and he’ll raise a pint with you and give you a shoulder-squeeze of support. But San Francisco fans should be reminded: with the Cardinals leading the 49ers 31-7 at halftime of their September 27th game, Arians told the team, “If you relax, I’ll be looking for new people. Put your foot on their throat.”

San Francisco fans can handle such things. They have endured worse.

– Eric Forgaard
11/29/15

This blog is not supported by a generous grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.