The Arizona Cardinals are yet another of why the NFL is a copycat league. For everyone. And right now, every team wants to be like the Super Bowl Champions.
Like the Seattle Seahawks ripped off Texas A&M with the “12th man,” designation for their home crowd, the Arizona Cardinals are “borrowing” from the Michigan State Spartans in nicknaming their secondary “the no-fly zone.”
NFL Network analyst Steve Mariucci is a big time Michigan State guy and close personal friend of Tom Izzo. So when I caught up to Mariucci at NFL Network Media Day, I couldn’t help but talk some Sparty.
And some Arizona Cardinals, and the NFC West in general, with “Mooch” in the podcast below:
In the video interview below, shot a couple weeks ago at the 2014 ESPYs, Arizona Cardinals DB Patrick Peterson talks about how they will have a no-fly zone nickname this season. Coincidentally, inspired by the Seahawks themselves, who go by the “Legion of Boom” nickname.
There’s just one problem, the Michigan State Spartans, came up with the No Fly Zone over a year ago. Here’s the proof. The Cards were named one of the teams to watch this preseason by Fox Sports. Understandable, when you have a secondary like the Cardinals (Peterson, Antonio Cromartie, the Honey Badger Tyrann Mathieu, Tony Jefferson/Deone Bucannon) which is that fearsome, you can stop the pass pretty well. And it certainly is a passing league.
And In this video interview of Patrick Peterson, he says that he plans to learn a lot from Antonio Cromartie:
And here Peterson lists the toughest wide receivers in the NFL to cover:
More exclusive interviews from NFL on CBS/NFL Network Media Day:
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks).