The plane touched down in Arizona. And wow – look! – fans had crowded into the airport to meet the Arizona Cardinals. The victorious Arizona Cardinals.

This was 1998 – the last time the Cardinals won a playoff game until this season. But a decade was nothing compared to the drought that Chris Gedney, Rob Moore and the 1998 Cardinals helped end. Ex-Syracuse teammates Gedney and Moore shocked ‘America’s team,’ the Dallas Cowboys. 20-7, in the wild-card round of the playoffs.

1998 was the Cardinals’ first playoff win since 1947, a 50-plus year drought. So with a history like that, it’s easy to explain Gedney’s shock as he exited the plane.

‘When we landed back at Phoenix airport after the win at Dallas, it was definitely an environment that none of us were used to in that there was probably 2000-plus fans waiting at the airport for us,’ Gedney, a tight end at Syracuse from 1989-92 said. ‘So I can’t imagine what it was like now when the plane touched down after the win at Carolina. And the home environment must’ve been like with beating the Eagles.’

That airport encounter is why Gedney can appreciate what the current Cardinals are experiencing. Arizona will play in its first-ever Super Bowl this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It never was easy being a player on the Arizona Cardinals. But while Gedney grew up an Eagles fan and was drafted by the Bears, his most productive years came with Arizona. The problem was there wasn’t much of a fan base. Gedney, currently an assistant athletics director at SU, found it humbling when for home games against teams like the Denver Broncos or the Dallas Cowboys, opposing fans would outnumber Cardinals followers.

When Gedney and Moore discuss the current Cardinals, they like to wonder what it’d be like to have a sharp-eyed gunslinger like Kurt Warner at quarterback.

Other than members of the front office and equipment managers, much has changed with the Cardinals organization since their last playoff appearance before this season. Gedney referred to himself as more of an intense fan of the game than any particular team. Still, he’ll be rooting for Arizona come Super Bowl Sunday.

He said the Cardinals’ playoff run has reminded him of what it was like when Arizona beat Dallas. Though he won’t be heading down to Tampa for the game, Sunday could be Gedney’s chance to see the Cardinals organization finally triumph on its highest stage.

‘Truth be told, I will probably be in my house with my son, and possibly Matt Park, who does play by play (for Syracuse University),’ Gedney said. ‘And I will have the DVR remote in my hand. And DVR was introduced so you could watch the Super Bowl in an hour and a half. It’ll probably take me five hours because I always just rewind.’

Published on January 27, 2009 at 12:00 pm