Believe it, Cards fans! Team is no longer a joke

August 1991. I walk over to safety Tim McDonald in the Cardinals' locker room. We chat for a few minutes, then I tell him I'm getting married the following January.

Bordow: Clash of styles creates interesting matchup

Whisenhunt has Cards flying high above past rep as losers

Read Scott Bordow's blog

"When?" McDonald asks.

"January 11."

"But what if we make the playoffs? You'll be working."

I look at McDonald and smile.

"Yeah, you're right," he says.

That was always a nice thing about the Cardinals. You could plan your life around their schedule.

Need a Sunday to take care of things around the house? Wait until November. The Cardinals will be 3-7 and their games will be meaningless.

Want to take a trip up north? Go in January. There won't be any football to see in the Valley.

But guess what? No longer are the Cardinals must-not-see football. Suddenly, our local NFL team has shed its label as the laughingstock of the league and, dare we say it, become a dark-horse Super Bowl contender.

I know. It's hard to believe.

But look at the Cardinals. They're 7-3 and about to win their first division title since 1975. Quarterback Kurt Warner is the front-runner to win his third Most Valuable Player award. And today's game against the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants is the marquee matchup in the NFL.

The Cardinals. On the marquee.

I swear I just saw a pig fly.

"Definitely the spotlight is on us," free safety Antrel Rolle said. "We have to go out there and give the people what they want to see."

Suddenly - incredibly - this has become a Cardinals town. The Suns are old and struggling, Arizona State's football team lost six straight games and the Diamondbacks collapsed down the stretch.

It's hard to believe, but the Cardinals are the Valley's best hope of bringing home another championship.

That's why today's game is so intriguing. The Giants are the class of the NFL. They're 9-1 and playing even better than they did last year. If the Cardinals can beat them, they'll be the darlings of the league - and the apple of the Valley's eye.

"Nationally and from a bigger picture nobody really gives us a chance against the giants of the NFL," quarterback Kurt Warner said. "So everything we do from this point forward is about earning respect.

"When you play on the big stage against the best teams, they're always statement games and where you are as an organization and how you stack up against the best in the league. This game and (Arizona's Thanksgiving game against Philadelphia), people will definitely be watching to see what kind of team we have."

There's no point in replaying the Cardinals' struggles over the last 20 years. We know what the Cardinals have been and the heartache they've caused.

But this is a new day. A new team. No longer is Arizona the butt of jokes nationally or the chief supplier of angst locally.

The Cardinals are relevant and exciting and good luck finding a water cooler on Monday morning where someone isn't talking about Warner or receivers Anquan Boldin and Larry Fitzgerald.

Might Arizona be a one-hit wonder as it was in 1998, when it made the playoffs then settled back into its old routine over the next decade?

Maybe.

But for now, the Cardinals are the thrill of victory instead of the agony of defeat.

And today they have the chance to be Giant-killers.

"If we win, you know what people will have to say about us?" said fullback Terrelle Smith. "We're the real deal."