Kliff Kingsbury thought he might get fired soon during 1st Cardinals game

A dropped interception by Tramaine Brock that would have won the game for the Arizona Cardinals is maybe the top moment most will remember about Week 1 and the start of the Kliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray era, a tie with the Detroit Lions.

Others will look back on the 24-10 second-half surge by the offense and the quality Murray showed in Kingsbury’s high-paced system during the fourth quarter.

But Kingsbury remembers the struggle it took to get there, one where he started having second thoughts about if he would even last the entire season in Arizona.

With his team down 17-3 and unable to produce almost anything offensively, Kingsbury said in a conversation on The Ryen Russillo Podcast that big-picture fears began to form.

“I’m not exaggerating, I was thinking, ‘I can’t believe I just bought that house. I’m gonna be here two games and they’re gonna fire me,'” he said.

“That was about the highest anxiety I’ve ever had on the sidelines. Truly anything we tried to do was a complete disaster.”

Kingsbury’s headspace even extended to thinking about the main man responsible for him getting the job: general manager Steve Keim.

“That was a rough 30 minutes and I just kept thinking about poor Steve up there in the press box with the owner, probably just wanted to jump off the balcony,” he said. “But luckily it worked out.”

Kingsbury went on to reiterate that, seriously, he had big real-life problems in his thoughts as the first half continued to turn for the worst.

“I remember thinking, ‘I cannot believe I spent that much on a house, I’m screwed on this deal because this is going to be a short stay and I don’t know what we’re going to do,'” he said.

As for the era itself, its only one year in and hard to draw much from it. Arizona went 5-10-1, and despite a lack of weapons around Murray, the former Oklahoma quarterback still went on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and show extreme promise.

So while attempting to project forward what the future for the duo will be, just know that Kingsbury is at his home thankful he’s still got that job and didn’t have to lose it while stuck in a real estate nightmare.

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