Cardinals camp tour: Good times to Super hangover?

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Quarterback Kurt Warner, with his gigantic smile and rickety hip, bounces by with the stubborn perkiness of a caffeinated morning show host.

Warner's riding on a Segway x2 across a long practice field in the hilly paradise that is Cardinals camp. It's a nice way to travel, so nice three or four other Arizona players including Larry Fitzgerald are also on Segway's. They motor around like they're engineers at an Apple computer-production complex instead of an NFL training camp.

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But don't call the Cardinals camp soft as some in the media have insinuated. If you do, Ken Whisenhunt might punch you in the mouth. It also wouldn't be quite accurate.

The drills are run with crispness and the practices are intense. The Cardinals seem to understand one key fact: they had better be working hard because if recent history is any indication this team is about to experience a world of hurt.

The reason why is The Super Bowl Curse. It's an inescapable statistical trend few people know about and a trend that has doomed recent Super Bowl losers.

This is the crux of the curse: seven of the past eight Super Bowl runners-up have failed to make the playoffs and six of the past eight had losing seasons.

Normally, excessive statistics are for losers but this is an indicator that's tough to ignore.

The curse of Super Bowl fallen is as relevant to the Cardinals this season as Fitzgerald's hands and Warner's soft passing touch. The curse has devoured runner-ups the way a fat kid consumes cake.

"We know about it and we're going to try and beat the trend," said Warner, while signing autographs one day after practice.

"We haven't played our best football yet," said Warner. "We can get better. That's how we're thinking about this season."

In many ways, Warner is correct. Arizona had a 9-7 regular season, finished with one of the worst rushing attacks in football and still came within a miracle catch of beating Pittsburgh.

The Cardinals are also different from some of the previously cursed thanks to a roster that's more stacked than some realize. Besides the obvious talent like Warner (who deserves to be a lock for the Hall of Fame) and Fitzgerald, the Cardinals are also deep on the defensive side of the football.

If there is any team perfectly poised to beat The Curse it's this one.

The task, however, is daunting and The Curse has drained the life force of great franchises, Hall of Fame players and brilliant coaches. Since 1999 the Patriots, Bears, Eagles, Panthers, Raiders, Rams, Giants and Falcons failed to make the playoffs in the season following the Super Bowl.

The Seattle Seahawks did make the playoffs following their Super Bowl loss beating the trend.

It's not just the losing; it's how those teams sunk like a cruise ship hitting an iceberg. One issue is players that were stars just a year before morph into duds in the Super Bowl afterglow. There are numerous examples but none better than Seattle runner Shaun Alexander.

Alexander in 2005 was named the league MVP after rushing for over 1,600 yards. The following year Alexander broke his left foot, one year after that he broke his left wrist, and the Seahawks released Alexander in April of 2008. He signed with Washington but was later cut and is now out of football.

Thus it isn't a question of if a Cardinals star might suffer from The Curse, but if the trend is to be believed, when he will.

The best candidate for the Cardinals might be Warner. He's coming off hip surgery, and though Warner has declared his hip problem-free, Warner is 38 years old.

There's often a confluence of reasons for the Super Bowl malaise. Tougher schedule, key injuries and opponents feeling extra motivation are among a few. "Every team we play, we're going to be their championship," Fitzgerald said.

Coaches acknowledge the problem but seem unable to solve it, and the approach of Arizona is not to obsess on The Curse but not to ignore it either.

"You don't fear it," said assistant coach Russ Grimm. "You just try to get better, and if you get better things take care of themselves."

"It happens to a lot of teams that didn't win the Super Bowl," he said. "Why it happens no one knows for sure but you'd think teams would be a little hungrier getting there and losing."

Are the Cardinals hungrier, he was asked?

"We are," Grimm said, "I don't think there's any question. It's three years in Coach [Whisenhunt's] system and we feel we still have another run or two left in us."

"This team right now feels good about where we are," receiver Anquan Boldin said. "We're ahead of where we were last year."

Many of the cursed probably had the same feeling.