The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area. In 2006, the club will move to the new Cardinals Stadium in the suburb of Glendale, Arizona. They currently belong to the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL).

The Cardinals are the oldest existing professional American football club in the United States. The team was formed in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club in Chicago, Illinois. The club was then called the Racine Normals since they were originally located on Racine Avenue but moved to Chicago's Normal Field. They then changed their name to the Racine Cardinals after they started wearing cardinal red uniforms.

After becoming a charter member of the NFL in 1920, the club was renamed the Chicago Cardinals. The Cardinals moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in 1960, then relocated to the Phoenix area in 1988. The team was known as the Phoenix Cardinals before it started using "Arizona" in its name in 1994.

The Cardinals have won NFL Championships in 1925 and 1947. But the team has not won a league title since then, and thus currently holds the record for the longest championship drought (period of not winning) in NFL history. Despite being the oldest existing professional football franchise in the United States, the Arizona Cardinals have an all-time postseason record of 2-5. (Not counting the 1964 Bert Bell Benefit Bowl)

The Cardinals are the oldest existing football club in the United States, beginning as an amateur athletic club team in Chicago named the Morgan Athletic Club, which was founded by Chicago painter/builder Chris O'Brien. They began to field a pro team even before the founding of the NFL. He later moved them to Chicago's Normal Field and the team was named The Racine Normals, since they were originally located on Racine Avenue in Chicago. In 1901, O'Brien bought used maroon uniforms from the University of Chicago. The colors had faded by this time, leading O'Brien to exclaim, "That's not maroon, it's cardinal red!" It was right there that the team changed its name to the Racine Cardinals.

The team disbanded in 1906 due mostly to a lack of local competition, but reformed in 1913. They were forced to suspend operations for a second time in 1918 due to World War I and the outbreak of the Spanish Flu Pandemic. They resumed operations later in the year, and have operated continuously since then.

The team became a charter member of the American Professional Football Association (which became the NFL in 1922) in 1920, for the franchise fee of $100. According to some, the team's name was erroneously recorded as "Racine, Wisconsin." The team was renamed the Chicago Cardinals in 1922 after a team from Racine, Wisconsin entered the league. That season the team moved into Comiskey Park.

In 1932 the team was purchased by Charles Bidwill, then a vice president of the Chicago Bears. The team has been under the ownership of the Bidwill family since then.

The Cardinals won their first NFL championship in 1925, finishing the season with a record of 11-2-1 (until the 1933 season, the league champion was determined solely by win-loss percentage). It was actually awarded by default, since the Pottsville Maroons, the team with the best record, had their franchise revoked for violating the territorial rights of the Frankford Yellowjackets. The team posted a winning record only twice in the twenty years (1931 and 1935) after their championship.

In 1944, owing to player shortages caused by World War II, the Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers merged for one year and were known as the "Card-Pitts," or derisively as the "Carpets" as they were winless that season.

The Cardinals won their last NFL championship game in 1947 (28-21 over the Philadelphia Eagles) with their "Million-Dollar Backfield," which included quarterback Paul Christman and halfback Charley Trippi. They advanced to the championship game the next season, but lost 7-0 in a rematch with the Eagles.

In 1960 the team moved to St. Louis. During this period, two big-league teams of that name existed in the city. Sports fans and local news broadcasters got into the habit of calling them "the football Cardinals" or "the baseball Cardinals" to distinguish the two. The change in scenery did little to alter the team's fortunes. During the Cardinals' stay in St. Louis, they advanced to the playoffs just four times (one of those was in a season-ending consolation game, and another was in the NFC tournament following the strike-shortened 1982 season). The team left St. Louis in 1987 when owner Bill Bidwill was unable to convince the city to build a new stadium.

In 1988 the Cardinals moved to Arizona, became the Phoenix Cardinals, and started playing home games in Sun Devil Stadium on the campus of Arizona State University. They became the Arizona Cardinals in 1994. The team did not post a winning record for 13 seasons (1985 to 1997). Joe Bugel coached from 1990 to 1993, usually finishing last in the NFC East, which produced the Super Bowl winner in each of those seasons (Giants 90, Redskins 91, Cowboys 92-3). Buddy Ryan replaced Bugel in 1994, lasting 2 seasons. He infamously guaranteed victory in the 1994 Week 3 game at the Cleveland Browns (Cleveland won, 32-0). Ryan was followed by Vince Tobin, under whom the Cardinals posted a 9-7 record in 1998 and advanced to the playoffs for the first time since the 1982 season. They upset the favored Dallas Cowboys in the wild-card round, 20-7, but lost their divisional playoff to the Minnesota Vikings, 41-21.

Tobin was fired during the 2000 season and replaced by defensive coordinator Dave McGinnis, who remained head coach until his firing in 2003; McGinnis compiled a win-loss record of 17-40 during his tenure.

The Cardinals have not won more than seven games in a season since their 1998 playoff appearance, and have had one of the worst yearly attendance records in the NFL.

In 2004, the Cardinals hired as their head coach former Minnesota Vikings head coach Dennis Green, who compiled a 97-62 record in ten seasons with Minnesota (1992-2001), leading that franchise to four NFC Central Division titles and two NFC Championship games.

In 2000, Maricopa County voters passed a ballot initiative by a margin of 51% to 49%, providing funding for a new Cardinals stadium (as well as for improvements to Major League Baseball spring training facilities in the greater Phoenix region; and youth recreation). After some legal obstacles, the Cardinals began construction of their new facility in April 2003, in Glendale, one of the northwestern suburbs of Phoenix. Cardinals Stadium will feature a retractable roof and a slide-out grass surface, and is scheduled to open for the 2006 season [1]. It will also be the location of Super Bowl XLII (2008).