TEMPE, Ariz. — Accustomed to life as a pro football bottom-feeder, this NFC championship game stuff sure is strange to the Arizona Cardinals.

A litany of losing that seemed ingrained in a franchise that hasn't won a league crown since 1947 has made today's conference title game almost surreal.

Sure, the Eagles being a part of it isn't strange: This is Philadelphia's fifth trip in eight seasons. But the Cardinals?

"It just shows that's why you play the game," Arizona defensive end Bertrand Berry said Thursday. "Every time people talk about this matchup should go a certain way, if it did, it would be a sitcom. There would be no reason to play it.

"We're in a good position now. We earned our way to this point. Despite what everybody else thought about us, we're here and we're not going anywhere."

Well, B-Train, you want to go to Tampa and the Super Bowl, right?

"Sure. Everybody is relishing this. I'm definitely relishing this moment," he added. "It's something that I always thought could happen, but we actually had to go out and make it happen. That's the most gratifying thing about this, we're actually going out and making it happen."

Gratifying and stunning.

The Cardinals have occupied a variety of divisional basements representing Chicago, St. Louis and now Arizona. Until coach Ken Whisenhunt changed the culture in the Valley of the Sun, bringing in a positive attitude and winning ways from Pittsburgh when he was hired two years ago, the Cardinals were a laughingstock.

Heading into this season, coming off an 8-8 record, Arizona still was an afterthought, rated behind perennial NFC West winner Seattle and supposedly-rising San Francisco.

And even after the Cardinals (11-7) were the first division winner in 2008, they fed into the doubters with mediocre — or worse — performances in December.

Among their worst losses was a 48-20 whipping at Philadelphia. So when the playoffs began, the Cardinals were underdogs at home against Atlanta.

They won.

In a rematch of one of their only decent showings in the eastern time zone, at Carolina, they demolished the favored Panthers last Saturday.

Now, they are underdogs again to the Eagles, who have won at Minnesota and at the Meadowlands, knocking off the defending champion Giants to get within one step of the Super Bowl.

"The game is here, it's in our home," said Berry, knowing the Cardinals are 7-2 at University of Phoenix Stadium this season and 13-4 overall under Whisenhunt. "We've earned that right, as well, so we don't make any apologies to anybody. If you don't want to watch us, you don't have to turn on the TV. We're going to play the game whether people watch it or not."

Oh, people will watch it. They just might rub their eyes when they see the Cardinals in it.

Viewers also might wonder how the Eagles managed such a strong run after coach Andy Reid benched quarterback Donovan McNabb in a loss to Baltimore that followed a tie at lowly Cincinnati. Or how Philly (11-6-1) even sneaked into the postseason parade considering all the help it needed.

But here the Eagles are, in the first conference title game featuring teams with only nine regular-season victories.

"Just because of the situation of how we got into the playoffs and us being a six seed, a lot of people didn't expect much from us and we've kind of surprised some people there," Eagles running back Brian Westbrook said. "And those other seasons we've been, of course, the No. 1 seed getting the bye and things like that and everybody expected us to win the Super Bowl and not just get there.

"But now we are kind of opening people's eyes a little bit and that's what we want to do as we continue — to continue to open people's eyes, see the things that we are able to do offensively, defensively and as a team."

They have done those things superbly since McNabb's benching, and suddenly are closing in on the NFC elite status they held earlier this decade.

"We're just going out there and handling our business every week," Westbrook said. "It's important for us to focus on every game and continue to not overlook anybody. ... We have to give everything that we have on every single play and if we do that, we'll handle our business."




© Copyright Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.