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Cardinals' Old and Restless a Surprise Hit
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Last spring, the Cardinals signed fellow wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald to a four-year, $40 million contract extension. Boldin has three seasons remaining on a deal that pays him salaries of $2.5 million this season, $2.75 million next season and $3 million in 2010.
Boldin, feeling underpaid by comparison, was publicly critical of the Cardinals and Whisenhunt during training camp and asked to be traded. Before the Cardinals played the Dolphins, Boldin's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said on a South Florida radio station that Boldin would like to play for Miami.
The Cardinals have refused to trade Boldin and, as Sunday's game demonstrated, he remains highly productive.
"I'm a Cardinal," Boldin said afterward. "Like I said, every time I go on that field I'm going to give my all and I'm not going to deviate from that."
Winning can heal many wounds in the NFL, and Boldin said Sunday he was pleased with the team's quick start.
"It feels good," Boldin said. "It's the first time I've been 2-0 in six years. But for us, like I said last week, we've got to keep it in perspective. We've got to take it one game at a time. We can't start looking ahead. . . . We're going to a good opponent, a place where we lost last year in Washington. . . . They're gonna be fired up thinking that we should be an easy win."
The question is whether the Cardinals, who won at San Francisco in their opener, can sustain this early success. It's a franchise that has had one winning season since 1984. Whisenhunt, a former Redskins tight end, went 8-8 with the Cardinals last season as a rookie head coach and now hopes to do better.
"The difference I see in this team," Whisenhunt said Sunday, "is that we have mature leaders, more mature leaders that are helping keep their focus on what we're trying to get accomplished."
Said Boldin: "Right now guys can taste it. Guys are getting that feeling for what it feels like to win and get on a roll. So for us, we just want to stack wins after wins and hopefully we'll be in the playoffs at the end of the season."
