The Arizona Cardinals are a member of the National Football League (NFL). There are 32 member clubs. The Cardinals are the oldest continuous NFL team, beginning in 1898.
In the 128-year history of the franchise, the team has won a grand total of two titles, in 1925 and 1947. Next season will be the 80th anniversary of the 1947 championship season. The 1925 title wasn’t actually won by the Cardinals, but the league took the title away from the Pottsville Maroons and then gave it to the second-place club, which was the Chicago Cardinals.
RELATED: THE STORY OF HOW THE BIDWILL FAMILY BECAME OWNERS
Last year, the Cardinals under head coach Jonathan Gannon lost the most games in a single season with 14. The final two seasons netted 26 losses, and Gannon was sent packing.
In the franchise’s history, the team has played in three league championship games, winning one. They have competed in 18 playoff games. The NFL did not begin a postseason system until 1933, which means Arizona will average playing in a playoff game every 5.1 seasons.
After moving to Phoenix from St. Louis in 1988, the club has found limited success, winning three division titles, playing in 12 playoff games, and losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII after the 2008 season.
Since the 2016 season, the Cardinals have played in just a single playoff encounter, a 34-11 loss to the Los Angeles Rams after going 11-6-0 in 2021.
Since 2016 (with divisional finish):
- 2016: 7-8-1 (2nd)
- 2017: 8-8-0 (3rd)
- 2018: 3-13-0 (4th)
- 2019: 5-10-1 (4th)
- 2020: 8-8-0 (3rd)
- 2021: 11-6-0 (2nd)
- 2022: 4-13-0 (4th)
- 2023: 4-13-0 (4th)
- 2024: 8-9-0 (3rd)
- 2025: 3-14-0 (4th)
Longtime fans still remember the 1974 and 1975 seasons under head coach Don Coryell, in which the franchise won back-to-back division crowns, but lost in their first playoff games. In 1976, the team went a respectable 10-4-0 but didn’t make the playoffs, and then in Coryell’s final season, finished 7-7-0.
Or the magical Super Bowl year with QB Kurt Warner, when the team held the late lead only to have it snatched away. The following year, both under head coach Ken Whisenhunt, the franchise won their division but fell hard in the playoffs 45-14. The NFC Championship Game loss to the Carolina Panthers in 2015.
Fans have vivid memories of these exceptional Cardinals teams. But here’s the rub: all of that was so long ago. What about now? Here it is 2026, and the roster is still devoid of an accomplished quarterback, with defensive struggles, and high-round draft picks that have fizzled out and traded away for almost nothing.
What about now?
Most points to the ownership group, which consists of five Bidwill family members. Michael Bidwill, is listed on the team’s website as the owner.
Michael represents the fourth generation of the Bidwill family as sole owners of the club. It began in 1932 when Charlie “Blue Shirt” Bidwill bought the Cardinals while on a yacht he owned, and had guests on board for a classy dinner. One of the guests was Dr. David Jones, who owned the Cardinals and was complaining about the team and the everyday toil. Charlie, on the suggestion of his wife Violet, agreed to purchase the Cardinals.
When Charlie passed away in the spring of 1947, his wife inherited the team and became the first woman to own a professional football team. Since then, the team has been owned by Charles Bidwill, Jr. and his brother Bill, then Bill Bidwill as the primary owner, then Bill and Michael Bidwill, and now Michael as principal owner.
Bill Bidwill had five children: Michael, Bill, Jr., Tim, Patrick, and Nicole. While Michael is listed as the principal owner, he shares the ownership group lineage with his siblings, representing the third generation of the Bidwill family running the franchise. No other Bidwill family member is on staff with the Cardinals.
Not happy
There is a contingent of the Cardinals fanbase that is just sick of losing seasons. They believe that the team doesn’t spend on high-priced free agents during the free agency period, which could come in and make a difference right away.
Every year, the franchise gets a bump in its evaluation on the Forbes list. In 2024, the team was valued at $4.8 billion; the following year, that jumped to $5.5 billion. What happened to make such a jump? A Super Bowl appearance? Best quarterback in the league? The club signed the league’s best head coach? Nope. Nothing. The franchise vaulted in value just for existing.
And in 2025, the Cardinals made $571 million. So, the owners of the team got $700 million extra in value, plus took home $571 million in profit. All in one swoosh.
The Cardinals fanbase is asking why the front office isn’t using some of that cash on big-name players. Go after them, and pay them handsomely. Show them the advantages of not playing in a cold city, and every game is inside a climate-controlled dome.
Keep in mind, the Cardinals are just one of many ventures that Michael has found success in. His portfolio, identified as “Bidwill Family Holdings,” extends to luxury real estate developments, premium hospitality ventures, and hospitality-focused private equity funds.
Petitions have circulated asking any disgruntled Cardinals fan to sign. These petitions aren’t for better restroom facilities at the stadium, or to lower their ticket prices, or asking about why the beer costs so much on game day. Nope. These petitions are asking for the Bidwill family to sell the team. Get totally out of the football business.
And now, another group began a GoFundMe and spent the money on billboards, asking the same questions and pleading for a new ownership group. On social media, the hashtag #BIDWILLOUT has grown with a simple statement: Sell the team.
A total of $7,000 was raised in just two days for a series of digital billboards. The message: MICHAEL, PLEASE SELL THE TEAM. Signed, the Fans. One billboard is in Surprise, another in Mesa, while the other is near Tempe Marketplace. Another is planned for downtown Phoenix.
The reality
The NFL is comprised of 32 member franchises. Each is wholly owned by people and corporations.
Two things: The NFL is not going to ever oust an ownership group as long as it hasn’t done anything illegal, and #2: there isn’t a number two.
The Bidwill family can keep their franchise for as long as they want. They are already in their fourth generation of owners. And their team increases in value every single year, regardless of, well, anything. Just for existing.
Just look at the franchise’s value for the last five years:
- 2022: $3.2 billion
- 2023: $3.8 billion
- 2024: $4.3 billion
- 2025: $5.5 billion
- 2026: $8.6 billion
Just look at the franchise’s earnings for the last five years:
- 2021: $467 million
- 2022: $467 million
- 2023: $546 million
- 2024: $560 million
- 2025: $571 million
Keep in mind, a great percentage of these earnings come from the collective of the NFL. For every Cardinals jacket you buy, it is split 32 ways. So, when someone purchases a New York Football Giants cap, Arizona gets 1/32 of the profit.
The same goes for the current TV packages. Each team makes over $400 million annually, regardless of whether anyone shows up for home games or not. Then there are other national sponsors such as Oakley, Ford Motor Company, Verizon, Ticketmaster, Pepsi, Toyota, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Bud Light, and AT&T. With each of these corporate sponsors, the Cardinals are paid an equal share of the profits.
Do not for one second think that a fan boycott will solve this. The team will still rake in millions. Look at the pandemic year. Fans weren’t allowed to attend NFL games. How many NFL teams folded?
This year, Arizona is averaging 62, 079 per home game. Last year, it was 63,524. Pretty much, fans are showing up regardless of the product on the field.
Now, there have been other NFL owners who some feel were forced out.
Dan Snyder of the Washington Redskins sold his team in 2023. But there were plenty of issues behind this decision. He had financial issues that were derived from large loans so that he could buy out his minority owners. He also had problems with raising ticket and parking prices after losing seasons. Then he testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding his team’s workplace misconduct, which included “sexual misconduct, exploitation of women, bullying of men, and other inappropriate behavior. That pretty much ended it, and he sold the team.
Or Jerry Richardson, former owner of the Carolina Panthers. He also faced allegations of a hostile workplace environment and both racial and sexual misbehavior. The league pretty much gave Richardson an ultimatum, and he sold the team.
But all of this involved criminal activity. As long as the Bidwill family stays out of court, they can do what they want and pass the baton to their children.
In 1983, Al Davis, owner of the Oakland Raiders, wanted to relocate his team to Los Angeles. At the time, it took a two-thirds majority vote of the NFL owners to approve any move. They voted no. But Davis moved his team anyway. The Raiders remained on the NFL schedule. Davis sued the league and eventually won $11.5 million in court. But at no time did the league threaten to take away his franchise. He sued every owner in the league, and Davis kept his team.
Think about this for a second. If you owned the Cardinals, and last year, the team made $571 million, plus gained $700 million just for existing, would you sell? Keep in mind, the franchise increases in value every year regardless of win/loss records. Would you refuse $571 million every year? Would you refuse a value of your business from $4.8 billion to $5.5 billion in one year to $8.6 billion, just for being in business? Would you sell?
And the beauty of this cash cow for the Bidwill family is that it doesn’t matter if the team wins, or signs the best QB, or hires the league’s greatest head coach. The increased value each year is not predicated on success as a franchise. It is predicated on mere existence.
The Bidwill’s can sell off every good player they have. They can hire the worst head coach for the lowest contract. They can raise ticket prices every year. They can rent the worst stadium in the region. And nobody will step in.
But they don’t.
After Gannon lost 26 games in two seasons, Michael canned him. He went out and found a disciple of the Rams and 49ers system, and hired him. He has put football men in high positions. He leases the best stadium in the area. Not every decision made has panned out. Not every high-round draft pick has come through.
One odd thing about these petitions and the billboards. Not a single word has been devoted to finding a solution to the Cardinals’ woes. Everyone has their gripes and complaints, and “we are tired of the losing,” but yet nobody is saying how to fix, well, anything.
Raise your hand if you believe four billboards are going to force/make/influence Michael Bidwill and his siblings to sell the Cardinals.
