So far, the Cardinals have stared down the supposed jinx that goes along with hosting the Super Bowl, overcoming every obstacle that fate has thrown in their path. But coach Bruce Arians doesn’t want to simply weather the storm; he plans to be the storm.
As noted by Peter King of TheMMQB.com, Arians has told his players, “Don’t let anyone dress in your lockers.”
In other words, Arians wants his players to consider the indignity of having players from another team in the NFC (the home team in this year’s game) using their locker room for the Super Bowl to be played in Arizona’s stadium.
Of course, it’s more than that. Someone else (presumably the NFC champion) would be using Arizona’s facilities all week long, an extended insult to a Cardinals team that currently is being disregarded by most experts and pundits.
Even at 7-1, with wins over the 6-2 Eagles, 6-3 Cowboys, and 4-4 49ers, many don’t regard Arizona as the best team in the conference, or in the league.Arians surely loves that, because it gives him more ammo for keeping his team from getting soft. And to keep them from seeing someone else use their locker room on February 1.