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Bird Still The Word For Cards' Legendary Smith

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 25, 2009

Jackie Smith, 67, the great Hall of Fame tight end from what were some occasionally good St. Louis Cardinals teams - yes, there were some good Cardinals teams - still couldn't believe his proud old eyes last Sunday. He was watching the celebration after the NFC Championship Game. Those looked like red birds on those helmets in the winning locker room.

"It was such a great thing, but such a surreal thing to see Mr. Bidwill carrying that trophy with all the confetti coming down," Smith said with a laugh. "It was as if Mr. Bidwill's head had been superimposed on someone else's body."

But it was the super truth.

"Go Big Red," Smith said.

The Bird is the word.

Yes, having the Cardinals, with all their awful history, reach Super Bowl XLIII is the next best thing to having the old Bucs do the same.

We might even get Hugh Culverhouse channeling through Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill this week to lift some silverware from the commissioner's party.

The Cardinals won their last title when Truman was president, and we don't mean Capote, but Mr. Buck Stops Here himself.

The Cardinals have played and lost home games all over this great land of ours. They've been America's guest, and usually they've forgotten to flush.

In case you didn't know, the Cardinals are a charter member of the NFL and the United States' oldest professional football franchise, and if that doesn't bring down this country, nothing ever will.

Funny, but their history isn't like Bucs history, with an 0-26 thrown in. There isn't an 0-16 like this season's Lions, either.

No, the Cardinals, especially since coming to the desert in 1988, are just a steady, unending line of unending bad football, a flat line, like on the old EKG.

The Bucs began playing football in 1976 by going 0-26. But when you add it up, they've won 205 regular-season games since then. The Cardinals have won 200.

In fact, the first home win in Bucs history, at the end of the 1977 season, came against Jackie Smith's Cardinals, after which Cardinals coach Don Coryell was fired. And he was one of the good Cardinals coaches.

The Bucs and Cardinals have met 16 times. Both teams are 8-8. The last three games in Arizona have been masterpieces played before predominantly empty seats, with scores like 13-9 and 12-7, and our personal favorite, the memorable 7-3 Bucs win in the season finale of 1992, in which the Bucs fought mightily to lose but in the end were overcome by five Cardinals interceptions, three missed Cardinals field goals, one Cardinals fumble and a partridge in a pear tree. Average attendance: 28,966. Oh, why couldn't it have been 666?

Key True Moment in team history: In 1901, the team owner, not even named Bidwill yet, purchased used jerseys from the University of Chicago. The jerseys were Cardinal red. A nickname was born.

Used jerseys.

It figured.

All those years, it figured.

Those days are over.

At least this season.

Jackie Smith, who still lives near St. Louis, is in love again. Actually, he never fell out of love.

"A lot of things are happening we didn't think would in my lifetime," he said. "I didn't see us having an African-American president. It's great for the nation. And so is having the Cardinals in the Super Bowl. Now that's something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime. Now everybody will see the bird."

The Bird is the word.

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