Faithfulness cardinal rule for local fans

Charlie Sheetz's sports "marriage'' hasn't been one of convenience.

Nothing fast and easy, the way you can buy stuff at his family's chain of stores.

Until a few weeks ago.

Now, after 45 years of frustration, the Arizona Cardinals have punched their ticket to the Super Bowl.

The experts were saying the Cardinals didn't even deserve to be in the mix, having qualified by winning an inferior division.

Now Charlie's going to Tampa on Sunday

to watch them against the Steelers.

It's made to order for him, a short drive from his winter home in Captiva.

He is going with his brother Louie, a Dallas Cowboys fan, who for years has contrasted America's Team's frequent success with the Cardinals' regular disappointment.

So now there is turnabout for the long-abused Cardinal fan.

"He's been unbearable these last couple weeks,'' Louie said.

Their father cheered for Donora, Pa.'s Stan Musial and Musial's St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, encouraging his kids to root likewise.

Charlie was the only brother to carry that interest into a love

of the St. Louis Cardinals football team, which moved to Arizona in 1988.

It helped that the Cardinals quarterback from 1961-69 was named Charlie - Charlie Johnson.

The team was good during the 1970s, when Jim Hart was quarterback, and decent during the 1980s, when Neil Lomax played the position, but hasn't won a championship since 1947.

But generally, the team was just down.

"Which low point do you want?'' Charlie asked.

The lowest for him was in 1999, when the team went into a funk after threatening to be good the previous year with Jake Plummer at quarterback, he said.

For the last decade, he has gone to at least one game a year in Arizona, where he can cheer with like-minded others.

Unfortunately, the support can be tepid. There are actually more opposing fans in the Tempe stadium when the team plays the Cowboys, he said.

There was never a doubt that he would go to the Super Bowl, Charlie said.

"I can't miss it,'' he said. "It's been too long.''

He got tickets through a friend who had promised to deliver if it ever happened, knowing Charlie's passion.

Ken Plisinski of Altoona became a Cardinals fan in the 1970s, then lucked out when the Army stationed him in Arizona, where he spent seven years as a season ticket holder.

It galls him now to see the fair-weather fans' hysteria.

"Pathetic,'' he said.

Does he think rooting for years through adversity is good for the soul, then?

"Adversity is good, but I don't know about torture,'' he said. "It eats at you.''

The experience of Dick's Sporting Goods soft lines manager Brian Foose shows Charlie and Ken to be rare birds in this area.

Foose hasn't had a single inquiry for Cardinals gear during the team's run.

Shenk & Tittle's, by contrast, has had three or four inquiries a day from people looking for a Cardinals shirt or hat, but hasn't been able to accommodate them, Manager Jeff Beach said.

The store had a few items, but they sold out before the first playoff game, Beach said.

Beach isn't sure those who want the gear are really interested in the Cards anyway, figuring they may be simply rooting against the Steelers.