TAMPA, Fla. -- The story goes that in 1980, Ken Whisenhunt spent an afternoon dissecting a Georgia Tech football practice, deciding whether he would walk on the team. Afterward, coach Bill Curry asked, "Well, son, what do you think?"
To which Whisenhunt replied: "I'll tell you this coach, if I decide to come here, I can sure help you guys."
No doubt, 29 years hazes memories. Curry says it is so. Whisenhunt, 46, says that sounds too brash for him. At that time, he was 18. He would play tight end and fullback, wide receiver and quarterback for Georgia Tech. He would play nine NFL seasons. He would begin his coaching career at Vanderbilt and become an NFL assistant with the Ravens, Browns, Jets and Steelers.
Two years ago, when Whisenhunt was asked about the Arizona head-coaching job, the Cardinals knew the answer. Whisenhunt did, too.
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If he decided to come, he could sure help those guys.
And so he has. All the way to Super Bowl XLIII.
Whisenhunt said he grabbed the job knowing it would take time. Time? This coach led his team to the football nirvana in two years. That's a blink in the typical time it takes an NFL coach to acquire a presence in this Roman Numeral affair. Pittsburgh's coach, Mike Tomlin, accomplished the same. Astounding, really, that both coaches fit that two-year bill.
But Tomlin built the Steelers, a team and franchise that already possessed a rock identity. Whisenhunt had to dabble in paste and glue, in therapy as much as coaching, in word and in deed boost confidence and shred longtime losing ways. He had to help heal a fan base that was always a play away from "Oh! Here we go again!" It was foul among the Cardinals when Whisenhunt arrived.
Adrian Wilson, their veteran safety, explained: "The locker room needed something because we were undisciplined, unprofessional and one of the highest penalized teams in the league. He came in talking about doing everything the right way."
And the Cardinals responded.
You can see it. You can see why. Whisenhunt in his news conference Monday kept it cool, kept it professional, yet still was informative. He's a presence, tall and stands erect and is direct. He's real -- he said arriving for this Super Bowl as head coach was emotional compared with his arriving for his last one. That time, only three Super Bowls ago, he was Pittsburgh's offensive coordinator. He won that game with friends. Now, to win this Super Bowl, he has to beat old friends.
He appears suited to do that.
Longtime football people enjoy the trust, the confidence of their friends in the game. But when they play against those friends, when they beat them, often, little in sport is sweeter. People who truly love competition know the honest value, the intrinsic respect gained in a football game by defeating a friend compared to that gained by crushing an enemy.
Whisenhunt strikes me as that type of competitor.
And since most of the Steelers players believed he would succeed Bill Cowher in Pittsburgh, and since he did not, Whisenhunt can craft it anyway he likes. Friends, enemies -- a fine line sometimes. Competition, healthy competition, well, Whisenhunt thrives on it.
He had to have people around him like that, players who could emphasize that in his presence, in his absence. A model of that type of player is Arizona wide receiver and special teams ace Sean Morey. He joined the Cardinals from the Steelers in 2007, two months after Whisenhunt. Their birthdays are two days apart in February.
They speak the same language. Love to compete. Have battled through adversity. Know how to build something that lasts.
"Sean is the type of player I wanted to build the team around," Whisenhunt said. "He gets the message across in the locker room."
Morey made a signature play in the Cardinals' season, blocking a punt and scoring a touchdown on the same play in overtime to clinch a 30-24 home victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 12. This was a huge game, a huge event for the Cardinals against a supposedly far superior franchise from top to bottom. You can talk and teach and preach until red, but until success comes, until a big victory like this happens, the stuff simply doesn't stick. This victory and a couple of others like it provided adhesive for Whisenhunt.
Said Morey: "He has an approach that a head coach needs to have in this league. He is candid, genuine, honest. Players respond to that. He can put things in the proper perspective at that moment and time that players can use to improve. He has a good staff with a lot of good teachers. Tough, physical, honest, hard-coaching."
Whisenhunt did it with Edgerrin James, the running back, who was left aside early but has been inserted, timely, as of late. With his dynamic receivers. With his rising defense.
And most of all with his quarterback approach. Whisenhunt knew that to get the Cardinals where he wanted them to be -- right here -- he needed to foster competition among them. What better way to do that than at quarterback? Early in training camp and beyond, he set Kurt Warner and Matt Leinart up as the key battle for No. 1. Across the board, the Cardinals' other position players knew they had to fight for their spots. All would be earned.
Competition can, indeed, turn friends into enemies and back into friends.
Whisenhunt knows this.
So, he moved forward and stressed teamwork and trust, his foundation, his mantra in what works in football and what does not. We do this together, he insisted. I believe his greatest accomplishment this season is repeatedly resuscitating his team. Bringing it back from the dead to high hopes, high places.
This Cardinals bunch lost three games this season -- 56-35 to the Jets, 48-20 to the Eagles and 47-7 to the Patriots -- that made them look comical. They were brutal losses, and they were typical of Cardinals teams past.
So many NFL teams would be toast after any one of those setbacks. You might hear a whimper down the road but not much bark.
Whisenhunt taught these Cardinals how to fight. How to compete. That changes cultures. On Monday, he would be the last one to say it, but he knew and believed this all could happen for the Arizona Cardinals.
That if he came, he sure could help those guys.
