There isn’t much to look forward to for the casual fan when the Arizona Cardinals visit the Chicago Bears on Sunday. Arizona is the team with the NFC’s best record, returning its star quarterback from injury and playing a Bears team that has fans calling for their head coach to be fired. On paper, it shouldn’t be close.
But for those of us old enough to remember a certain matchup between these teams in 2006, the game can bring back memories of one of the NFL’s great postgame podium rants, courtesy of the late Dennis Green. The revered coach took over in Arizona in 2004 after coaching the great Vikings teams of the 90’s. He became incensed after a question following a Week 6 loss to the undefeated Bears on Monday Night Football in which his Cards blew a 23-3 lead.
“The Bears are who we thought they were and that’s why we took the damn field,” Green said before slapping the podium. “Now if you want to crown them, then crown their ass, but they are who we thought they were. And we let them off the hook.”
Denny Green believed in his heart we were just as good as the undefeated Bears in 2006. We played like it… for most of the game.
His postgame press conference produced one of the most famous tirades in NFL history.#CardsFolktales 'Thanks, Coach' is now streaming on YouTube.
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 2, 2021
That’s the essence of this list.
Every team enters each season with expectations. But for every team that actually lives up to who we think they are, there’s another that doesn’t. Below are the 12 teams who aren’t who we thought they were, whether because they’re outperforming or underperforming preseason expectations reflected by preseason over/under totals, or because they’re simply getting it done in other ways.
(Odds provided courtesy of Tipico Sportsbook.)