NFL: Cardinals and Panthers lie in wait as play-off party begins

The NFL post-season starts today with momentum invaluable for those aiming for Super Bowl 50. But the shadow of the two best teams, Arizona and Carolina, looms large. Rupert Cornwell reports from Washington on the state of a nation

Cam Newton, of the Carolina Panthers, celebrates after victory over Tampa Bay last Sunday. His team have been sensational this season and could win their first Super Bowl (Getty)

Maybe this is the year when justice is done in the National Football League. Not justice as in court battles over traumatic brain injury, or in the headline-making extra-curricular crimes and misdemeanours of certain players – but justice on the field. In other words, could 2016 see the Carolina Panthers or the Arizona Cardinals win their first Super Bowl?

Today the NFL play-offs begin with the wild-card round, the start of the road to Super Bowl 50 (rather than the usual Roman numeral, L, in keeping with the sport’s gladiatorial leanings), to be held in Santa Clara, California, on 7 February. As the two top seeds in their conference, neither the Panthers nor the Cardinals will be in action this weekend, each rewarded with a bye to next weekend’s divisional round.

Never, but never, underestimate wild cards in the NFL post-season. They may only be the two next-best teams in each conference battling the two division champions with the least impressive records. But competitive parity has been a key to the NFL’s emergence as the dominating force in American pro sport. The last 10 Super Bowls have produced eight different winners –and three of them have been wild cards, even though they’ve first had to win three games on the road to get there.

But the shadow of the Cardinals and the Panthers lies over proceedings. They had the two best records in the league, and by common consent are its two best teams. The Panthers, led by inspirational quarterback Cam Newton, had a prodigious 15 and 1 regular season, perfect until the penultimate Sunday. Newton combines the throwing and rushing games as few before him. In 2015, he registered a career-best 45 touchdowns (35 passing, 10 rushing), and had three games with five touchdown passes.

“Did I expect this? I got to be honest, no,” Panthers general manager Dave Gettleman told reporters this week. “Did I envision us playing well? Before the season started I felt it was our strongest roster ever. But 15 and 1? There’s only been seven teams that have ever been 15 and 1. Did I envision this? No.”

The Cardinals, although they had a marginally inferior record of 13 and 3, may be an even stronger all-round unit. Their quarterback Carson Palmer is 36, but he too has just had his best-ever season after coming off major injury. And Arizona’s defense rates as among the most impermeable in the NFL, despite a 36-6 thrashing in the final game at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks.

And like the Panthers, they’re more than due. Carolina has been around only since 1995, but has consistently been one of the best recent expansion teams, winning the NFC crown in 2004 before losing the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots. As for the Cardinals, they are America’s oldest professional football team, founded in 1898. But they haven’t won an NFL title of any kind since 1947, let alone a glitzy modern Super Bowl.

All of which has rather eclipsed what’s been happening in the AFC. Tom Brady and the Patriots started the season 10 and 0, seemingly hell-bent on having Commissioner Roger Goodell’s head on a plate after the “Deflategate” imbroglio – which, of course, didn’t stop New England winning the Super Bowl, but did lead to a controversial (and subsequently overturned) four-game suspension for the league’s pin-up quarterback.

Then injuries to key players took their toll, and the Patriots lost four of their last six games, allowing the Denver Broncos, with an identical 12 and 4 record, to claim the top-seed spot. But the Broncos have their own quarterback dramas, revolving around Brady’s great rival, Peyton Manning.

This surely must be the 39-year-old Manning’s last hurrah. He did overtake Brett Favre’s NFL passing record in 2015, but otherwise it was his worst regular season. He was injured, then benched, then hit by performance-enhancing drug allegations (which he vehemently denies). But midway through the Broncos’ final game, with his team trailing, Manning was summoned back, and led Denver to a vital win.

But for arguably the two greatest quarterbacks of their era, a fairy-tale ending in Santa Clara is unlikely. Neither the Broncos nor Patriots are playing well, and the play-offs are all about momentum. The Pittsburgh Steelers – never to be counted out – have it, as they go into tonight’s game against Cincinnati. So do the Kansas City Chiefs, winners of 10 games straight after a 1 and 5 start to the season, who face the Houston Texans.

Over in the NFC, it’s a similar story. The wild-card Seahawks appeared in the last two Super Bowls, winning it all in 2014, before narrowly losing to the Patriots last year. This time they picked up after a spotty start, delivering that trouncing to Arizona on the final Sunday. Now they’re everyone’s dark-horse pick to go all the way.

And so to the Washington Redskins, long the NFL’s most dysfunctional franchise, they of the Name That Must Be Changed. But, miraculously, things settled down in mid-season. The team found a more than decent quarterback in Kirk Cousins, won the woefully bad NFC East, and tomorrow face off at home against the wild-card Green Bay Packers.

The Packers have the peerless Aaron Rodgers, but if momentum means anything, the Redskins could well win. If so, the capital of the free world will briefly go crazy. But victory means a trip to either Carolina or Arizona in the divisional round – and, surely, lights out.