Cardinals owner Michael Bidwill has been silent amid conflicting reports about his communications with coach Kliff Kingsbury and G.M. Steve Keim since the team was bounced from the playoffs, but today Bidwill broke his silence.
Appearing at an event to promote the Arizona Super Bowl Host Committee, Bidwill acknowledged that the 2021 season, which started so well, wasn’t good enough.
“Disappointing for everybody,” Bidwill said, via Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “For our players, for our coaches, certainly for our fans and certainly as a fan myself, it was very disappointing. We have high expectations. We need to play better. We had a lot of great success in 2021. I don’t want to take away from that, but we can get better and that’s what we’re working on now.”
Bidwill acknowledged it won’t be fun seeing two division rivals, the Rams and 49ers, in the NFC Championship Game.
“Anytime you see your direct competitors in the playoffs, it should bother any football fan,” Bidwill said, “and it certainly bothers this one.”
Kingsbury and Keim weren’t fired after the Cardinals’ playoff loss to the Rams, but Bidwill’s comments seem to serve as a warning that they need to go further than the wild card round to keep their jobs a year from now.