Kyler Murray disowned Cowboys for losing, but not the Cardinals?

It must be a slow news week when the Arizona Cardinals quarterback, Kyler Murray, candidly admitting his dislike for the Dallas Cowboys while growing up in Texas makes headlines. Yet, that’s what Murray nonchalantly revealed during an interview with Sports Illustrated recently.

In fact, when the native of Bedford, TX who went to high school in Allen, (both located just north of Dallas) was asked if he was a Cowboys fan growing up, he responded with an expletive-laced no. When asked why not, he responded by saying “They were always a**.”

The 23-year old Murray was born on Aug. 7, 1997, that’s more than a year after the Cowboys’ last Super Bowl victory which took place on  Jan. 28, 1996. Since his birth, Dallas has been to the playoffs just nine total times and won only three postseason games.

Growing up in Texas by no means makes you a Dallas Cowboys fan. But Murray’s insistence that he wasn’t a fan of the Cowboys because they were losers has to strike a bad chord with some. That potentially includes fans of his current team, the Cardinals.

If Murray wasn’t a fan of the five-time Super Bowl-winning Cowboys, he must have loathed going to a team like the Cardinals as the top pick in the 2019 draft, right? After all, the Cards are one of 12 teams never to win a Super Bowl. In fact, they’ve only ever been to one championship game and that was back in 2008. Murray would have been 11-years old at the time.

From the time Murray was born until today, the Cardinals have been to the postseason only five times. That’s four less than the Cowboys during the same span. Since their inception as the St. Louis Cardinals back in 1960, they had only ever been to the playoffs three total times in the 37 years prior to Murray’s birth in 1997.

So if Murray thought Dallas was a**, what did he think about getting drafted to play for a team that has been historically far less successful? According to Kyler, he wanted to play for Arizona when he was drafted there two years ago. Obviously, the fact they held the number one overall pick was a factor.

Incoming college prospects typically don’t have any influence where they land in the draft, so Murray said what he needed to say in that situation. But one has to wonder if his take on the Cardinals would have been similar to his take of the Cowboys prior to any inkling he’d be drafted there.

In fact, with Murray starting under center for the Cards in all 32 games the past two seasons, Arizona has posted records of 5-10-1 and 8-8 respectively, missing the playoffs both years. Perhaps a young Kyler wouldn’t have been a fan of the modern Cardinals either.

Nonetheless, Kyler Murray is not the only Texas native who grew up disliking the Dallas Cowboys. Fandom isn’t regional as we have plenty of Cowboys fans living in all different parts of the world, even in dreaded enemy territory (other NFC East teams). But it’s more than a little ironic Murray claims he wants to play for a franchise that’s been historically worse than a team he once considered to be a**.