A Look at the 1947 Chicago Cardinals

Amazing how close we are to the start of the NFL season. We are just over three weeks away, and preseason in the early stages. Also amazing is that the Super Bowl is closing in on celebrating 60 years; next year will be Super Bowl LX, but this year, it's Super Bowl LIX in Las Vegas. The NFL has evolved over the years in regards to crowning a champion, but there have been many memorable champions in the over 100 year history of the National Football League.

1947 gave us one in the form of the Chicago Cardinals.

It was a totally different league back then. It was the 15th year following the official introduction the NFL Championship Game. For the first 13 seasons, the NFL's standings crowned a champion, though in 1932, a tie in the standings forced a playoff game to decide who would be that year's NFL Champions. The popularity of the playoff led to the NFL introducing a perennial championship game in 1933, and in that same year, the 10-team NFL was divided into two divisions: Eastern and Western. The two division champion faced each other in the aforementioned NFL Championship Game, with home field determined by better record.

Out of the 10 teams, two of them played in the Windy City: the hallowed Bears and the aforementioned Cardinals. Both teams were in the league's Western Division along with the Green Bay Packers, the Los Angeles Rams, and the Detroit Lions. In 1947, the Bears entered as the defending champions, though the Cardinals had a strong start to their season. The Cards started 3-0 with wins over the Lions, Packers, and Bears (oh my!), but the Rams would hand the Cards their first loss of the season. The Cards improved to 7-1 after four straight wins, but would lose back-to-back games in Washington and New York.

Even at 7-3, the Cardinals still had a good shot at the division crown, and that would increase after defeating the Eagles in the penultimate week of the season. The win, coupled with the Bears loss, placed both Chicago teams at 8-3 atop the West, and they would face each other on the final week at Wrigley Field. That's right. That final week drama even existed in the old days of the NFL, and in the case of the 1947 season, it was the Cards and Bears facing off in the home of MLB's Cubs for the division title. Winner takes the West, but if the game ends tied, they would have to face each other one more time in a playoff tiebreaker. No tiebreaker would be needed, as on December 14, 1947, the Cardinals defeated the Bears, 30-21, to capture the Western Division crown and earn the right to play for the NFL Championship.

The Cardinals would have to wait an additional week to find out who they would face, as the regular season ended with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers tied atop the Eastern Division at 8-4. The Eagles blanked the Steelers in the Eastern Division playoff to advance to the big game, which took place at Comiskey Park, which had served as the longtime home of MLB's White Sox. The Cardinals struck first in the game, as Charley Trippi's 44 yard TD run served as the lone score of the first quarter. The Cards went up 14-0 in the second quarter, and they led 14-7 at the half. The game was close the rest of the way, with both teams trading touchdowns throughout the second half. The Eagles cut it to a one score game with five minutes left, but the Cardinals' final possession saw them control the ball for the entire remaining time on the clock, sealing the deal.

On December 28, 1947, the Chicago Cardinals defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 28-21, to capture their second NFL Championship. Their first championship came 22 years prior in 1925, when they finished with a league-best 11-2-1 record. If there was an MVP for that game, it had to have been Charley Trippi, who not only had a rushing touchdown, but also returned a punt for a score as well. Trippi played all nine seasons with the Cardinals, with 1947 being his rookie year and his only championship season. The last surviving member of the 1947 championship team, Trippi passed away on October 19, 2022 at the age of 100--one of only two NFL players to live to 100.

Not only was this the Cardinals' only NFL Championship Game victory, but sadly, this stands as the team's last championship to date. The Cardinals have the unfortunate distinction of having the longest championship drought in all of American pro sports--just one year longer than the Cleveland Guardians' dry spell. Here's how long ago this was. Shemp Howard had just returned to The Three Stooges. A gallon of gas cost around 20 cents. Harry S. Truman was President, and World War II ended two years prior to that year.

The Cardinals have moved twice since then, moving to St. Louis in 1960, and then once more to Arizona in 1988. The playoff luck would not improve, however. The Chicago Cardinals returned to the NFL Championship Game in 1948, a rematch against the Eagles, but they would lose to Philly. It would be another 26 years until the relocated St. Louis Cardinals returned to the playoffs, doing so as champions of the newly formed National Football Conference's Eastern Division. They would have to wait longer than that for a playoff win, as the relocated Arizona Cardinals won the 1998 NFC Wild Card Playoff over the Dallas Cowboys, their first playoff win since that aforementioned NFL Championship. In 2008, the Cardinals reached Super Bowl XLIII, their first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history, but they were defeated, 27-23, by the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Over three-quarters of a century have passed, the Cardinals have been relocated twice, but they are still looking for their next championship, which would be their third in franchise history. Sadly, it does look like they'll have to wait even longer, but from what I read, their 1947 championship was the stuff of legends. They had to beat their crosstown rivals to take the Western Division, and they won a back-and-forth championship game to rule atop the entire league. The 1947 Chicago Cardinals' road to the NFL Championship was definitely one of the most underrated championship runs in the entire history of the National Football League.