FanPost

Has Steve Wilks Turned the Arizona Cardinals Fanbase Against the Team?

Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports

Has Steve Wilks Turned the Arizona Cardinals Fanbase Against the Team?

It's hard to say with certainty that the Cardinals 17-3 loss to the hapless Detroit Lions was the low point of Steve Wilks' career in Arizona so far—without a doubt it is a low point, but looking back over the trainwreck that has been the 2018 Arizona Cardinals season there have been so many worthy contenders for this dubious honor.

But, at least for me, the loss to the Lions did represent something new. For the first time in my more than a decade supporting, following, and (previously) covering the Arizona Cardinals, I gave up on the team and switched the game off.

I've been a fan of the Arizona Cardinals since 2004. I've followed the team through the Dennis Green, Ken Whisenhunt, and Bruce Arians eras, eras which have certainly contained some of the Cardinal's high points, but no shortage of disappointment and unfulfilled potential too. In that time, I've watched every one of Larry Fitzgerald's 1,286 catches, and throughout that time, have never wavered in my commitment to this team. Along the way, like all of us who have followed this team, I've witnessed my fair share of losses. Living in the UK, that has meant some very late nights, staying up knowing that the team would likely lose. Yet, without fail, I've seen each and every one of those games to their conclusion. And without fail, I've always found something to be proud of my team for, and something to smile about. There has always been that silver lining.

I was there in person for the Cardinals London game against the Rams, perhaps the low point of my time as a fan of the team to that point, and yet, even then, I stayed until the final play, I cheered my team as they left the field, and left with a smile on my face.

But Sunday night, something was different. I suffered through the first quarter, watching and waiting with patience to see Fitzgerald's inevitable record-breaking 1,286th catch with the team. Though I had the game playing on the 100" projector screen of my home theatre system, a weekly tradition in my household, much to the chagrin of my wife and daughter, after the first period of play I could already feel myself losing focus. Time and again, I found myself more interested in the many time-sink games on my phone, and random youtube videos on my laptop. Once Fitz finally had his catch, I found myself in an unfamiliar feeling, and coming to an uncomfortable realisation—I had no particular reason to continue watching the game. And more than that, I had no desire to continue to watch it either.

At this point, of course, the game was still very much anyone's to win, and the Cardinals were by no means beat, but, win or lose, for the first time in my life as a Cardinals fan, the outcome didn't make a difference to me. I continued to watch the game—or at least, didn't turn it off, in spite of not really paying attention to it—for about another 10 minutes after Fitz's catch, perhaps out of some sense of loyalty to the team and its players. But, as the game continued, the realization became ever stronger and more profound. Watching the game, watching this team, wasn't fun. So I turned off the TV and went to bed. While my favorite team was still playing, I opened up Netflix and watched a couple of episodes of "How I Met Your Mother", a decidedly average show, and one I have watched multiple times before.

We watch sports because it's fun, and to give us joy and excitement. Sure, there are occasions where the team let us down, where watching them lose isn't the most enjoyable experience, but I've always, without fail, been able to find those silver linings, those moments of joy even in the most difficult games. Like I say, I've been a fan long enough to experience more than a few losses along the way, but I'm not sure I've ever been able to say that watching the Cardinals hasn't been an overall enjoyable experience.

Until now. Because, since we finished the preseason—a period which gave me great hope for the potential this team had— under Steve Wilks leadership during the regular season, it's hard to point to a single game where I can say I've really enjoyed watching this team. As Dan Bickley so accurately summarises, the "the Arizona Cardinals aren’t just bad, they’re also unwatchable".

In the past, I've suffered from depression. Depression manifests in a lot of different ways, for a lot of different people, but for me, it was always a cold, emptiness, an inability to feel anything at all. I remember what joy, or sorrow, or happiness, or sadness should feel like, and can recognize the things that should trigger those feelings in me, but they all feel like the same, bland, nothingness.

It's a very hard feeling to explain to people who haven't experienced it for themselves. I've tried all kinds of examples, and metaphors, and illustrations to try and help to try and communicate that feeling to others, but, somehow, they always feel like they come up short. But watching the 2018 Arizona Cardinals may just have become my new go-to example, the closest I can imagine someone without depression could come to approximating that feeling of nothingness.

The team have left me feeling cold towards them, I feel absolutely nothing towards this team, a team I have passionately followed and loved throughout the past decade-and-a-bit.

Perhaps, you'll say, I'm just a just a bandwagon fan, who doesn't want to stick with the team when things get tough. But as a sportswriter, I was the guy who was John Skelton's biggest cheerleader in 2011 and wrote articles highlighting the positives in 2012. My first season as a fan saw us go 6-10 in 2004, and I stuck with them in 2005 as things got worse, and they fell to 5-11. I had no particular loyalty to Arizona. I was born and raised in the UK, so had the pick of any team I wanted. I have family ties to the New York/New Jersy area, and to Massachusetts, and had spent a little time in Minnesota and Wisconsin during my teens, so perhaps the Giants, Jets, Patriots, Packers, or Vikings would have had an in-built loyalty, but the Cardinals, I chose them and stuck with them, because I enjoyed watching them. Even though some of the darkest times for the team, there was always something, a spark, that got me excited. I could see the potential that the team had, I could see the talent we had, I believed in the destination we were going.

But no more.

While I remain convinced that the team has tons of potential, and, unlike so many, I still believe that the core of our team is strong enough to compete, the type of football they are playing, the coaching, the strategy, and the vision for them, is nonexistent.

Of course, the players must shoulder some share of the blame—the coaching staff do not drop simple catches, or fumble the ball, or miss tackles, or throw interceptions, the kind of mistakes that contribute to making this team so hard to watch—and Steve Keim must take responsibility repeating so many of the mistakes of the past, failing to build a functional offensive line, relying too heavily on short-term contracts, and allowing too many of the young cornerstones of our team to walk away in their prime. Both the locker room and the GM's office need a shakeup.

But, to my mind, the blame for robbing me of my love for the team, and for stripping away any joy I find watching them, that begins and ends with Steve Wilks.

Time and again, he has demonstrated his unwavering commitment to a style of football that simply doesn't work in today's NFL. He has forced his players into roles for which they are not ideally suited and plowed ahead with a scheme that feels out of touch with the direction the game is heading and is easily outmatched by other teams. Even when it, arguably, works, as it did against Green Bay, it is a style of football that is torturously slow paced, lacking in any excitement, or fun. And again, even when the team does get wins, it's hard to argue that the scheme really worked. In the aftermath, which resulted in the firing of Mike McCarthy, the general consensus of the media was not that the Cardinals had convincingly won the game, but that the Packers had done something significant to lose it.

Let me be clear—I don't blame Steve Wilks for trying to become a run-first team, with a stout defense. He had a unique rushing weapon in David Johnson, and a defense that had proven itself time and again in previous seasons, and any head coach would have been laughed out of the building if they didn't showcase these as the centerpiece of their team. But I do blame him for failing to put together a scheme and a vision that even remotely begins to actually play to the strengths of these various elements.

As a sports fan, I know I'm not supposed to admit this, but, one of my guilty pleasures is Pro Wrestling. It's corny, I know, but, from the moment they truly leaned into the idea of "sports entertainment", I've loved it. I think it's because, at its core, they recognize that the reason we watch sport is in order to be entertained, and they make the entertainment of the fans—at least in theory—their primary goal. Of course, real sports teams, don't use phrases like "sports entertainment" to describe their business, but, maybe they should!

The only reason massive, professional sports leagues like the NFL exist is that we, the fans, pay the money to see it. Steve Wilks is acutely aware of this fact, admitting that the team owes it to the fans deserve a better product than the team has delivered. But that was three months ago, and in the weeks that have followed, Wilks has done almost nothing to address the underlying issues the fans have with the team—that they are boring. In spite of what he may claim, Wilks has given us no reason to believe he cares about putting together a product which the fans will enjoy.

I've been a Cardinals fan long enough to know that we're a pretty loyal bunch. As long as we feel you're trying, as long as we feel you're going out there, giving it your best, and trying to give us an entertaining experience, we'll continue to show up, we'll continue to cheer, and we'll continue to find that silver lining.

But that isn't happening under Wilks. For a few weeks, we've been wondering out loud if he has lost the locker room. I'm not in there with the team, so I can't say. But after the game against the Lions, I can say with certainty, he seems to have lost the fan base.

At very least, he's lost me.

<em>This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Revenge of the Birds' (ROTB) editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of ROTB's editors.</em>