Op-Ed: Cards Will Deal Peterson

The Arizona Cardinals will trade 8 time Pro Bowl CB Patrick Peterson---because Peterson has forced their hand.

Peterson returned to participate in the Cardinals OTAs yesterday---

He said it was good to be back “with my boys, my brothers.”

The problem is---pretty much all of Peterson’s real boys and brothers have left the nest and they are the ones goading Peterson to do all he can to get away from the “snakes in the grass.”

The Cardinals’ defense is now in the forceful hands of alpha ace S D.J. Swearinger.

D.J. Swearinger will never accept half assed tackling efforts and from anyone on his defense.

Real brothers play for each other and make the physical sacrifice for each other in an all-out effort to win football games.

Arizona media magnate, Dan Bickley, described Peterson’s return to the Cardinals’ facility yesterday as “smooth”---that “his smile infected the locker room.”

Bickley mitigated the impact of Peterson’s 6 game suspension by stating that it doesn’t matter as much “when you realize the kind of trash that flourishes on other NFL rosters, and how Peterson is nothing like them.”

Bickley even went as far as suggesting that Cardinals’ fans should thank Peterson for bailing on Steve Wilks “for being honest enough to illuminate a dumpster fire in progress.”

And worst of all, Bickley concluded, “Barring any further incidents, Peterson’s re-emergence at Monday’s practice will make it safe for his teammates to preserve his captaincy out of respect, even with a six-game suspension looming in the distance. That’s because Peterson has made highlight reels and huge credibility deposits in our mental banks. Emotionally, he rarely has a bad day. He makes any sports town a bigger, brighter, more quotable place.”

Bickley, who on the day of the NFL Draft predicted that the Cardinals would not have the guts to take QB Kyler Murray, remains brilliantly star-struck by Peterson---as very likely would the Cardinals’ administrations of old---

But, a new era has dawned in Arizona, one spawned by the fresh philosophy of gathering talented players who put the team first.

Patrick Peterson has one thing on his mind these days---his eyes are fixated squarely on the guaranteed money he will make in his 3rd contract.

Currently, the guaranteed money that Peterson made on his 2nd contract is all gone. That is at the heart of why Peterson is so volatile these days and even desperate enough to run the risk of taking performance enhancing drugs, along with a masking agent, so as to cover it up.

Do you believe that Peterson feels a sense of loyalty to the Cardinals and to his so-called “brothers” on the team?

Would it be difficult to imagine that Peterson will happily go to the highest bidder (a la Karlos Dansby)---no matter what that team is? The caustic irony will be that he will say how nice it is to “feel loved” by his new team.

Akin to what happened with the Money Badger, following his abrupt departure from the team (after being paid $31M for two “meh” seasons), the innuendo will be that the Cardinals are cheap and disloyal.

That’s a crock.

That’s a common case of biting the hand that feeds you.

When Tony Jefferson got his big 2nd contract from the Baltimore Ravens, Bruce Arians had the temerity to say, “Well, we’ll see how TJ plays now that he has the money.” Meanwhile, Tyrann Mathieu, Arians’ pet player, was the one who dogged it after he got the money---with Arians still as his head coach. Talk about ironic loyalties.

If the Cardinals kowtow to Peterson after the theatrics and the cheating he has pulled over the past 9 months, all of the momentum the Cardinals have gained during that critical time in the team’s history will be washed away.

However---the words of the prophets are written on the GM’s walls---because Steve Keim, who was burned badly by Mathieu, is not going to let anything like that happen again. The harbinger here is what Keim told Scott Bordow of “The Athletic” when speaking about his new prized CB Byron Murphy:

“His toughness for being a corner … a lot of those guys are not great tacklers as we know,” Keim said. “He’s a solid wrap tackler who isn’t afraid to put his face in there. That’s so important. Nowadays the way NFL teams are running the football they’re forcing your corners to tackle. You’re going to make a guy tackle all day and eventually they’re either going to get tired or scared or not want to tackle and you’re going to break some big runs.”

Sure, right now the GM, the new head coach, the new defensive coordinator and the team owner will keep saying all the right things---that Peterson “is one of the best to ever play the position”---just as they were unanimous in saying that Josh Rosen “has all of the skills you could ever want in a QB.”

Steve Keim, unlike Dan Bickley, is no longer blinded by the brilliance of Patrick Peterson’s “infectious smile.”

There once was day when the Cardinals would do all they could to hold star players hostage in Arizona out of desperation amidst the harrowing throes of an identity crisis.

But, for anyone who is paying close attention, on December 31, 2018, Michael Bidwill and Steve Keim tossed those old worn-out decks of cards into the locker room trash barrels.

There is a new identity in Arizona---a brand new deck of Aviators---and these Cards are no longer joking.