And The Respect Just Keeps On Coming...

...or does it?

First a note about last week's game. I committed a "Cardinal" sin by not watching the game as it happened. Instead of being at a television or stadium to watch the football game, I went off to Talladega for a NASCAR race. Okay, I'm not even a NASCAR fan, but my brother is, and I just wanted to see what all the hubbub is about. I can safely tell you that now, I can say I've done it, and I just don't need to do it again. I plan to write more about my trip, but that will be on my personal page over at http://lloydians-space.spaces.live.com/. No, I haven't written it yet, but it's a great story. Stay tuned.

But one part of the story involves going to the race and seeing a big yawner of an event punctuated by regular checks of the mobile web on my phone to see who was winning the Arizona/St. Louis game. Yes, while everyone around me was enthralled with a 30 car conga line, I was keeping up with the drive from the Fox Sports web site. I watched when I returned home, but knowing many of the details, the game lost a little in translation.

So, getting to the current situation, my two pennies on the Leinart situation: well, we always wanted Matt to have a season of observing and learning, and now that's not a choice: it's a requirement. Leinart is the future, Warner is the present, and I see good things for this team. Go Cards!

And that leads, of course, to the game with Carolina, a team that has been blessed with major problems at quarterback, the likes of which I would not wish on any team. When Leinart went down, the media reported that Tim Rattay and Vinnie Testaverde were being invited for a look. The local media (and fans like me) were nearly unanimous in saying we don't want to go older (Vinnie's a great quarterback, but he's older than I am, and that's not easy for an NFL player to say). As it turns out, Vinnie never even flew into town. Instead he signed with this week's opponent, and bizarre as it may be, he may even start on Sunday. I don't care how good he is, there is no way he can master a new offense in five days.

So the Cardinals are at home, their opponent has major questions at the quarterback position, and Arizona has been playing quite well lately. So why does the latest line say 4.5 points? Go ahead, football pundits, dismiss this team. Tell us how bad we are in January.