Cardinal qb Derek Anderson said he was sorry for his Monday evening postgame tirade. Proclaiming that his mom and dad did not raise him to behave like this during times of adversity.
The quarterback’s rant, now a country wide spectacle, came after a number of inquiries from Kent Somers, The Arizona Republic’s beat reporter, concerning why Anderson was laughing with teammate Deuce Luiti on the sideline while the Arizona Cardinals trailed the 49ers by 18 points late in the game. The quick clip of the 2 smiling had been shown throughout the Monday evening broadcast.
Anderson said after the game that it was no one’s business what he and Lutui were referring to. As Somers kept asking, Anderson lost his temper and exclaimed about how he had set his “freaking heart and soul” into the squad and that there wasn’t anything comical about it.
Anderson was low-key and contrite as he opened up his weekly news conference Wednesday.
The blowup came following the Cardinals lost their seventh straight competition, 27-6 in a flat, listless performance versus the san francisco 49ers.
The strain has been on Anderson since coach Ken Whisenhunt called him the Cardinals’ starter during the preseason, then released Kurt Warner’s heir apparent. At some point, Whisenhunt benched Anderson however returned to him after rookie Max Hall had trouble mightily. Whisenhunt said Tuesday that Anderson will be starting Sunday against the Rams.
Whisenhunt has brushed off the joking on the bench, saying it’s not fair to read into anything from a handful of seconds of video. On Wednesday, Whisenhunt repeated his praise of Anderson’s work ethos.
Anderson entered the year completing 52.9 percent of his passes for his NFL career. He is at 52.8 percent this year. Among starting qbs, just Carolina Panthers rookie Jimmy Clausen was lower at 50 percent.
When questioned how he manages to stay calm, Whisenhunt responded: “You need to stay even and not lose your temper. Trust me, I get upset, players have seen that from me, it’s tough. There’s no way around it, we’re working to correct it every day, and hopefully, we’ll get it done.”
Arizona’s offense ranks 31st from 32 NFL squads, and as constantly is the situation with quarterbacks, Anderson receives the most of the criticism from fanatics. Anderson said he aims to avoid his critics. Running back Tim Hightower stated he felt for his qb over the last 2 days.
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