The fans not only toppled the goal post, but they hauled it out of Sun Devil Stadium. “It hit the upright and went through,” Butler recalled, “and I just remember holding my head going, ‘Oh, gosh.’ If I didn’t make that, they might have carried me out of the stadium instead of the goal post.” The Cardinals had taken down the Cowboys, and the fans were about to do the same to the goal post. On first-and-goal from the 3, Tobin sent Butler onto the field for the potential game-winning, chip-shot field goal.īutler’s kick veered left and hit the upright before bouncing through for the overtime win.Ĭenters described what happened next as “pure pandemonium.” Fans flooded onto the field, releasing nearly a decade worth of pent-up frustration by staging an impromptu party and makeshift parade. “The people were getting going.”Īfter the two teams traded fumbles in overtime, the Cardinals moved the ball to Dallas’ 3-yard line on a 29-yard catch and run by Centers. “All of a sudden, you look up (in the stands) and all of the Cowboys jerseys had been turned inside out and now they were Cardinals jerseys,” Arizona kicker Kevin Butler said on the “Cardinals Folktales” podcast. Graham then connected with receiver Rob Moore for the two-point conversion to even the score. It was a night of big plays for the Cardinals, who rallied from a 22-7 deficit in the third quarter to tie the game with 1:06 left in regulation.ĭown by eight in the fourth quarter, Cardinals quarterback Kent Graham led an eight-play, 70-yard drive that was capped by a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Pat Carter to cut the Cowboys’ lead to 22-20. They had all the names and all the swag that goes along with it.” Dallas had dominated the NFC East for years. “They were the big brother we were the little brother. “They were Dallas and we were the Cardinals,” added former Cardinals receiver Frank Sanders. “When they came here, they had a lot of fans - more fans than we had at our own stadium,” former Cardinals fullback Larry Centers said in the documentary. “So when you played them, you had probably 80% Cowboy fans in the stands and 20% Cardinal fans.”ĭallas quarterback Troy Aikman even referred to visits to Sun Devil Stadium as a “ninth home game.”

“The big thing about the Cowboys is before the Cardinals came, they were the only game in town,” said Vince Tobin, Arizona’s coach from 1996-2000. The Cowboys, meanwhile, won three Super Bowls during that stretch, including a 27-17 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX at Sun Devil Stadium on January 28, 1996. They had yet to post a winning season in Arizona, and fans were reluctant to abandon their NFL allegiances for a longtime loser. The Cardinals rarely were relevant in their first nine years in the Valley of the Sun after relocating from St. #CardsFolktales 'The Night the Goalposts Vanished' is now on YouTube. with a special guest… the goalposts through which the game-winning field goal traveled. the Cowboys lead to a victory parade down Mill Ave. On a hot desert evening in 1997, an improbable win vs.

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