It was a few days ago, but the Arizona Cardinals honored Carson Palmer by inducting him into the Ring of Honor on Sunday at halftime of the game against the Seattle Seahawks. Before the game, he spoke with reporters and, beyond the feel-good comments he made about playing for the Cardinals and returning to the stadium to be honored, he also revealed some things worth pointing out about him you might have known before.
He has only been to 2 NFL games as a fan
Palmer revealed that on Sunday it was only the second NFL game he had ever attended as a fan. The first time was when he was in high school.
“A buddy and his dad, we got on a Southwest flight and flew to Candlestick (Park) from Southern California,” he said. “It was (Troy) Aikman vs. Steve Young in the ‘94 NFC Championship or ’95, freshman or sophomore year of high school. Sitting up in the nosebleeds, it was my first NFL game. Back then they didn’t have the screens, but you’re sitting up at the top just trying to figure out what’s what.”
The Senior Bowl, Kliff Kingsbury and beer
Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury spoke of his impressions of Palmer at the Senior Bowl and how he was basically in awe of Palmer. Palmer had one about Kingsbury.
“He’s just a cool dude,” Palmer said of Kingsbury and his memory of him at the Senior Bowl. “You go into this room when you check in and there’s a handful of other guys there. It was Kyle Boller, Chris Simms, Kliff, myself. And they put you in a room where there’s beer on tap and I think Kliff and I were the only two (saying). ‘it’s there for a reason, right?’ And everybody else was like ‘Oh no, it’s a test. There’s hidden cameras.’ I think Kliff and I would get along really well away from the game, away from football.”
His Heisman trophy is where?
Palmer was asked where he keeps the Heisman he won in college. He couldn’t remember exactly. After looking at his son, he recalled this.
“I have a garage office. It’s in my garage,” he said. “We pulled it out a little while ago. I don’t know why. It’s up on a shelf. It’s actually behind some YETI coolers that we’ve been using to go camping. My oldest daughter asked me the other day, ‘what is that?’ and I got halfway through the explanation and her mind was on something else. Totally disrespectful and walked away and was playing on something else.”
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