Any good org has to go through a rebrand once in a while. And the Arizona Cardinals get it – perhaps better than any team in NFL history. During their 100-year history, the Cardinals have kept things fresh by moving from Chicago to St. Louis to Phoenix. Though they seem to have finally settled in as the Arizona Cardinals, the current moniker hasn’t brought them much success.

Where Do We Begin?

The official history of the Cardinals franchise dates back to 1920 when they were known as the Chicago Cardinals. During their 40 seasons in the Windy City, the Cardinals won two NFL championships before packing up and moving to St. Louis, where they shared a name and a stadium with the city’s far more successful baseball franchise. The St. Louis and post-merger eras weren’t too kind to the Cardinals, who managed just three playoff appearances in 28 years.

But the Cardinals don’t quit. They move.

So, the team headed out on a new adventure, this time to Phoenix. Or really Tempe, as the Cardinals shared a stadium just outside the city with the Arizona State Sun Devils from 1988 to 2005. They cleverly rebranded from ‘Phoenix’ to ‘Arizona’ before the 1994 season, but it wasn’t until 2006, nearly 20 years after they moved to the desert, that the franchise finally got a stadium of their own.

Where Are the Wins?

No matter where the Cardinals have called home, periods of success have been few and far between. Since winning the NFL Championship in 1947, the Cardinals have endured a title drought spanning more than seven decades. They were heartbreakingly close to another win in Super Bowl XLIII but lost to the Steelers. After the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, Arizona’s championship drought officially became the longest active losing streak in North American sports.