Seeing the helmet design of the Arizona Cardinals last night reminded me of a time someone confided in me.

It was late summer in 1987. I was spending a few days with the guy in charge of attempts to secure an NFL franchise for the city of Memphis.

The Cardinals were still based in St. Louis. In a few days, they would be playing one of their preseason games in the Liberty Bowl in Memphis.

The team's owner wanted to move the Cardinals and Memphis wanted the team.

But at some point, the guy in charge of the the city's lobbying pulled me aside and spoke to me man to man.

Here's how it's going to go down, he said. No bull.

We are not going to get the Cardinals, he said. But we are going to land one of the two expansion franchises the NFL was about to award.

How? Transportation costs, he explained. He drew a map of the United States and placed a dot in the Northwest to represent Portland, Oregon.

Portland, he said, was our one real rival. But the NFL owners liked saving money. And it was cheaper to fly to Memphis than Portland for a majority of NFL teams.

I nodded.

And, of course, you know what happened.

The Cardinals went to Phoenix and the NFL awarded teams to Charlotte and Jacksonville.

Then, as if to seal the fate of Memphis' NFL dreams, the Houston Oilers moved to Nashville and became the Tennessee Titans.  .

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