Stars won't align for Cardinals in NFC Championship Game

Stars won't align for Cardinals in NFC Championship Game
January 16
Philadelphia Daily News columnist John Smallwood
"I WOULD START this with "no disrespect to the Arizona Cardinals," but there is no way to respectfully write this.The Eagles will not lose to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in the NFC Championship Game.Enough with all of the breakdowns based on logic, statistics and current status of the teams; there is a larger metaphysical aspect in play.I know the Arizona Cardinals are a better team than the one the Eagles carved up on Thanksgiving night to begin their wild ride to the NFC Championship Game.I know that Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, despite being 37 years old, already has a Super Bowl ring, is a possible Hall of Fame candidate and can still light up a defense with his rapid-release arm.I know about wide receivers Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, the resurrection of running back Edgerrin James and the sudden emergence of the defense.I know that with the roof closed at University of Phoenix Stadium and a surge of last-second bandwagon-jumpers after Arizona beat Carolina last week, the Cardinals will actually have a home-crowd advantage - possibly for just the fourth time in their existence in the desert.I know that, logically, the Eagles could lose to the Arizona Cardinals.Umm, no they can't.If this were the regular season or another round of the playoffs, maybe, but the NFC Championship Game - no.The Philadelphia Eagles cannot lose and allow the Arizona Cardinals to advance to Super Bowl XLIII.The order of the cosmos won't allow it. I think there's a law written against it somewhere.I mean, really, wouldn't the city of Glendale, Ariz., sink into the desert if the Cardinals upset the balance of the universe by achieving something that great?Arizona Cardinals and Super Bowl - the thought forces the mind to shut down from the vast expenditure of energy used to comprehend it.It is the Cardinals, and whether they were representing Racine, Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix or Arizona, this has generally been the most disheveled, mismanaged and lousy franchise in the NFL.And considering some of the dark eras in Eagles history, it takes a lot from someone in Philadelphia to say that."
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