There was a definite pattern on who stank, in the 80s it was simple:
The AFC at best was OK, most of it stank.
The NFC Central, except for the Bears a couple of season, stank.
The NFC West, except for the Niners, stanks.
The Cardinals were involved in a lot of really bad games, the franchise stinks. Bad owners. But really anybody claiming any game that wasn’t Green Bay- Tampa Bay in the 80s the worst game ever is just wrong. The hard part about picking the worst game ever was that those two truly terrible franchises were in the same division and played two horrid games a year against each other, the mighty Bay of Pigs series. Of course most people didn’t watch those games, the league was never dumb enough to make them primetime, and CBS only showed them where they absolutely had to. But definitely one of those is the worst game in NFL history.
Oddly enough, those Cardinal teams of the early 1980s really had a lot of talent. They had a potent offense with players who were among the best in the league at their respective positions (QB Neil Lomax, RBs Ottis Anderson and Stump Mitchell, and WRs Roy Green and Pat Tilley . . . and Lawrence Taylor always said that the Cardinals' Luis Sharpe was the best OT he ever played against).
They were certainly a perfect example of a poorly-run franchise . . . and the move to Phoenix (and the salary cap!) sure hasn't helped, has it? LOL.