Why is it Arizona Cardinals and not Phoenix Cardinals?

Arizona Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metro area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League as a member of the National Football Conference West division and have their home games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona.

As a Chicago-based amateur football team known as the Morgan Athletic Club, the organization was established in 1898. The franchise joined the NFL as a founding member on September 17, 1920. Only two NFL charter member teams, the Chicago Bears and the Arizona Cardinals, have continuously played football in the country since the league’s foundation.

The team’s corporate headquarters and training facility are still in Tempe, even though it moved to a new home stadium in Glendale in 2006. From 1988 until 2012, the annual Cardinals training camp was hosted at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. The Cardinals’ training camp was moved from State Farm Stadium to University of Phoenix Stadium in 2013.

Seven of their eleven postseason appearances—including three in the NFL postseason in 2008–2009—were followed by victories. Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, they have only only won one NFC Championship Game, which they did in 2009 when they advanced to the Super Bowl XLIII.

Why is it Arizona Cardinals and not Phoenix Cardinals?

The Arizona Cardinals was once called the Phoenix Cardinals. Soon after the 1987 NFL season, Cardinals owner Bidwill made a handshake agreement with state and municipal leaders to transfer the team to Phoenix.

The team played there as the Phoenix Cardinals from 1988 to 1994, when they changed their name to Arizona Cardinals, which has been the same ever since.

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