The Arizona Cardinals earned a big win over the Chicago Bears today, but not everyone in the Cardinals’ locker room was in a mood to celebrate afterward.
Wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who was inactive for the game, said his injured ankle felt good enough to play, and he was baffled that coach Ken Whisenhunt held him out. And he said he was even more baffled at how he found out that he wasn’t playing.
“I’d have probably felt better if somebody would have been man enough and walked up to me and told me what the situation was,” Boldin said after the game, per Kent Somers of The Arizona Republic, “but I had to walk back in the locker room and find all of my stuff gone.”
Whisenhunt, however, said he didn’t decide that he was going to rest Boldin until minutes before the deadline for declaring players inactive (90 minutes before kickoff), and that he approached Boldin as soon as he did decide.
“I put his name down right before that 10:30 deadline,” Whisenhunt said. “I was torn right up until that. He [Boldin] was still out on the field.”
The Cardinals’ passing game was just fine without Boldin, as Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner completed 22 of 31 passes for 261 yards and five touchdowns. But the Cardinals’ locker room won’t be fine if Boldin and Whisenhunt aren’t on the same page.