A letter from Gerry and Dezirae Moore brought a tear to our
eye, while somehow putting the game of football in perspective and at the same time
capturing the essence of the role Cardinal Football played in one family's life. Mr. Moore
apparently has been close to the Cardinal organization through the Tempe Toyota dealership
and considers himself honored to deal with the teams personnel. The following is an
excerpt from Mr. Moore's letter:
My wife sat me down
last year on my only day off (me telling her I had work to do being my only day off). "Honeydoos", she said "No! You watch the Cards play and you show me why you spent
17 years of your life loving it." Wow! So I did.
That was 1996. We went to all of the home games this year and she
loved it. (Everywhere she went she sported her Card's stuff and got razzed by it) but she
put people in their place saying (no matter who they were):
"If you don't like the AZ Cards, tough! Move."
She was originally from Pennsylvania, so she wanted to see the
Steelers and sat on their side. And so we did - in the middle of all the black
clothes and jackets - and us with Cardinal Red. It looked like a black widow spider. She
was just as loud and obnoxious as they were (only she was rooting for the Card's). Leaving
after the game she said "I had so much fun before I die were taking Dezi (our 1 yr
old daughter) to a game I said: "Of course we'll take her to all of them next year."
She said "No! When's the next home game?" I said: "In a couple of weeks
they play the Washington Redskins." She said: "Good! We're taking Dezi to that
game." We did and My 2 sons saw the game in Georgia were they live for the school
year with their blood mom. They saw us all 3 -- me, Carolyn and Dezi on her shoulders when
FOXSports panned the stands and locked in on us.
That was the last time my boys saw Carolyn alive, she got sick on
12/17/97 and we had to take her off life support on 12/31/97. She got her wish. She took
Dezi to a Cards game. And she met some of my player friends that she hadn't known
before, after the game .When she got sick and taken to the hospital she wore her
pullover Cardinal wind breaker ,they had to cut it of course. She died a true fan. It's
funny because everybody wants a picture of her from last year with
her other Cardinal jacket on! It was also on display at her funeral.
A special thanx to John Shean, Earleen, Aeneas and the rest of the
Cardinal personnel who had been praying for us during our struggle, It will never be
forgotton. Thank you for your support.
Sincerly: Gerry & Dezirae Moore
Mr. Moore adds: "I consider myself lucky but most
of all honored to deal with the team's personnel. For over 7 years not once can I remember
anyone there with anything less than an positive outlook know matter how bad the record
was (well except at the end of the Buddy era,that was him not the players). From the days
of Lance Smith to Jake Plummer all have been great. Now we need to push that to the
public! We need to make them want it. |