How times have changed for the Cardinals

The first day of Cardinals camp Wednesday in Flagstaff brought me
back to the spring of 2003.

It was then that the Arizona Cardinals, coming off a 5-11 season
under coach Dave McGinnis were looking to make a splash in free
agency and defensive lineman Vonnie Holliday was their main
target.

Holliday was the 19th overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft for Green
Bay, had 8 sacks as a rookie and was a solid defensive lineman on
the free agent market after finishing his rookie contract.

I remember at the time fans and Cardinals brass being excited
about the visit that Holliday was making, but I also remember there
wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell of them actually signing him. I
knew he was using the Cardinals to get more money somewhere
else and that ended up being Kansas City — where he signed a
five-year, $21.3 million dollar deal with a $4 million signing bonus.

Now, nine years later, Holliday is entering his second season in
Arizona after coming over from Washington in the Tim Hightower
trade. Wednesday on the show, we
joked about how much things
have changed around here. With a new stadium, a front office
willing to spend money and continuity on the coaching front
Arizona is a place free agents want to consider, a destination that is
appealing to players.

“It starts at the top with coach Whiz,” said Holliday. “He is a coach
players want to play for and with the addition of Ray Horton — that
was huge. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to pick up and move to the
west coast when the trade went down, but there was a lot of talent
on this team and this time around I wanted to play here.”

When I asked Vonnie if there was ever a chance he would have
played here back in 2003 when he visited he looked at me and
simply said “no.” When I asked him how bad it was he said “bad,
real bad.”

My how times have changed.

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