Cardinals’ David Johnson ‘honors’ Carson Palmer with self-made hat

Once upon a time, Carson Palmer competed in the weekly quarterback bucket challenge.

In brief, the Arizona Cardinals quarterbacks — and sometimes a guest or two — would attempt to toss a football into a garbage bucket. The loser would be forced to wear something ridiculous during the next pregame warmup.

There were bikini, elf and baby outfits. And at one point, starting quarterback Carson Palmer wore an inflatable unicorn around his waist.

A day after the Cardinals announced that Palmer would be inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor as its 18th member, Arizona running back David Johnson gave a shout-out of sorts to his first NFL signal-caller.

During Johnson’s Wednesday appearance on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, Johnson wore a hat featuring a picture of Palmer in the unicorn outfit.

David Johnson right now joining NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football.”

And his hat an homage to newest member of @AZCardinals Ring of Honor Carson Palmer pic.twitter.com/QisoFBcuIp

— Mark Dalton (@CardsMarkD) June 5, 2019

Let’s just say Johnson’s choice to “honor” Palmer was fun and not the most embarrassing option.

He could have called back to Palmer wearing a mermaid outfit or patriotic full-body tights after two of his other losses in the bucket challenge.

The worst of all, undoubtedly, was the time Palmer wore a too-small bikini top created out of football uniform materials with a hula skirt — on his birthday no less.

Palmer’s on-field exploits certainly warrant a Ring of Honor induction; the guy helped to bring the best run of decent-to-great football since the Cardinals flocked to Arizona. His off-field antics are certainly worthy of honors, too.

Johnson recognized that because Palmer had quite the hand in helping the running back to a historic year in 2016. Perhaps the hat was truly about Palmer being a unicorn of a quarterback.

Back in the present, Johnson’s headwear on Good Morning Football was all fun and games, but his interview was a little more serious. Asked about what success would mean for Arizona in 2019, Johnson didn’t set a low bar.

“A successful season is winning the NFC West, first off, and then nothing less than winning a Super Bowl ring,” he said. “That should be the mindset of everyone on this team. They can overlook us as much as they want, but we have confidence in our team, in our offense, in our skill players, in our number one overall pick, Kyler, Coach Kingsbury.

“We can let all the people, all the media say what they want to say about us, and our biggest goal is first off winning the NFC West. And just letting everyone overlook us.”

What's a successful season for the @AZCardinals look like?

For @DavidJohnson31:

"Winning the NFC West first off. Nothing less than winning a Super Bowl ring… they can overlook us as much as they want." pic.twitter.com/f2r4vhjvXo

— GMFB (@gmfb) June 5, 2019

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