Sunday, January 11, 2009

$138.50 buys a trip to heaven

Bought a ticket for the Arizona Cardinals' once-in-a-lifetime appearance in the NFC title game Sunday. Lucky enough to get the ticket on Ticketmaster because the game was sold out in minutes. Going with my dad, who is probably the only other 20-year fan (including the Cardinals' pathetic owners, who for so long made decisions that revealed their inert hatred of the franchise) of the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals.

I believe they will win, just as I have believed the Cardinals would win going into every other game they've played since I was 10. If Arizona maintains its newfound hot streak, it's on to the Super Bowl. And my heart will explode into a billion pieces of confetti, covering the land in bliss and dreams.

The tickets were expensive - $138.50, in case you forgot to read the headline - but given their intrinsic worth I believe I underpaid by about $10 million dollars. On Sunday University of Phoenix Stadium will become a cathedral to the league's most defeat-ridden franchise. Believers will gather and shout the forces of good to victory, with the shared faith that just once Lucy will not pull the football away from Charlie Brown as he runs in to kick it.

The Cardinals represent the impossible and the besieged. The marginalized and the moribund. If Arizona can win than anyone can. And that is why they must.

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