He spent 25 years at ESPN hosting a plethora of TV and radio shows, including his work on NFL Live. That allowed him to develop relationships with people all around the sport of football, which makes his storytelling intriguing and ironically, straight from the source. Each week Trey offers his "Random Thoughts and Observations" mostly about the NFL, but mixes in other sports and other subjects. Here is a snippet of his latest post, on the surprise Arizona Cardinals this season. A link to the full article is below.
Gotta give it up for Arizona, they got it right when I was absolutely sure they didn’t. As we enter late season football and begin careening towards the playoffs… the team with the best record in the NFL goes by the name of the Arizona Cardinals. Let me explain how rare that it is … actually there isn’t enough time for that let me sum up ( gratuitous Princess Bride references always make things better): The Cardinals franchise is one only 2 charter members of The National Football League still going with the Chicago Bears being the other. That’s really a fancy way of saying they’ve been around for all 102 seasons in NFL history. And in all those 102 season, 2021 is the very FIRST TIME The Cardinals were the first team to get double digit wins. Let that sink in for a minute. So, how did this actually happen?
It started with what turned out to be the very best decision that everyone thought was absolute worst, hiring Kliff Kingsbury as their head coach in 2019. Before he was given the Cardinals job, Kingsbury was headed to USC … to be their offensive coordinator. This was after a stint as the head coach at Texas Tech where he had a losing record. Safe to say his hiring raised more than few eyebrows around NFL circles along with a few giggles:”There go The Cardinals being the Cardinals again “. And while this will be Kliff’s first season with a winning record, it was the right move because Kliff was able to finally land the object of his long time affection, Quarterback Kyler Murray. Ever since Murray’s vaunted Texas high school football career Kingsbury had wanted Murray in a way that at times almost seemed uncomfortable, think teen angst when the high school beauty seems JUST out of reach. But when Kliff got the Arizona job the Cards had the #1 overall pick and Kliff was dead set on getting his guy. If Kliff doesn’t get the job Murray doesn’t go first overall and what’s happening in the desert becomes a mirage and not the oasis it is. Murray has beaten back his critics who said he was too small to play at this level. He’s played at an MVP level this season despite missing 3 games. Murray and Kingsbury only SOUNDS like a really bad sitcom on Tuesday nights, it actually IS a beautiful football combination.
But the man pulling all the strings? That would be GM Steve Keim. Keim looks like an extra from any Marvel movie battle scene: imagine if Mr. Clean had suddenly taken on a very ambitious workout regimen. Don’t take my word for it…see for yourself.
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