The Kingsbury effect: Making Arizona Cool Again

Arizona Cardinals v San Francisco 49ers

Did the Arizona Cardinals just become cool?

Yep, and all it took was this picture. "Tank Man" at Tiananmen Square, the "Black Power Salute" at the Olympics and "A Man On The Moon" have nothing on Kingsbury's "Camelback Views" photo.

Just like that, the sports world realized how incredible it can be to coach the Arizona Cardinals.

This is important. Everything has a market, but not everything's marketed correctly. I imagine some businessman said that once. And, it's true. Flannel shirts were reserved for lumberjacks only until Nirvana came along in the 90's and declared them cool. Big butts were considered a bad thing until Kim Kardashian injected hers with plastic and declared it sexy.

In this way, the Cardinals head coaching job was just another second-rate gig until Kliff Kingsbury showed up looking like Daniel Craig in "007". Now you wish you had it.

Of course, it's always been a great NFL job. It's just never been advertised properly. Michael Bidwill is smart and reasonable - albeit meddling, the weather is perfect during football season, the cost of living is equitable, there are thousands of places to hike, there's Scottsdale, the media is low-pressure and the fanbase is hardly as angsty as most NFL cities.

If you asked Don Draper he'd tell you, a picture's worth a thousand words. In this case, it was worth 67,000 "likes" on Twitter. It told a story that hasn't been told. Not by Wilks, Arians, Whisenhunt or Green. If Kliff Kingsbury does nothing else for the Cardinals, he'll make a whole crop of prospective coaches, and Holly Sonders, jealous. Hopefully that won't matter. Hopefully Kliff is here so long that he has to give up the bachelor pad for a yard, a few more bedrooms and a basketball hoop, along with a wife and kids. That'd be nice.


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