The 2002 Arizona Cardinals season was the franchise’s 83rd year with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

and 15th season in Arizona. It was

Jake Plummer Jason Steven "Jake" Plummer (born December 19, 1974) is a former professional American football player, a quarterback for ten seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the second round of the 1997 ...

’s final season with the Cardinals as he went to the Denver Broncos in the 2003 off-season. This was the Cardinals' first season in the

NFC West The National Football Conference - Western Division or NFC West is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). It currently has four members: the Arizona Cardinals, the Los Ang ...

. The realignment put the team in the same division as the

Rams In engineering, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. The Cardinals thus played one game in their former city every year from this season until , after which the Rams returned to the

Los Angeles metropolitan area Greater Los Angeles is the second-largest metropolitan region in the United States with a population of 18.5 million in 2021, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino C ...

Offseason

NFL Draft

Undrafted free agents

Pat Tillman

In May 2002, eight months after the September 11, 2001, attacks and after completing the fifteen remaining games of the 2001 season which followed the attacks (at a salary of $512,000 per year),

Pat Tillman Patrick Daniel Tillman Jr. (November 6, 1976 – April 22, 2004) was an American professional football player in the National Football League (NFL) who left his sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002 in the afterma ...

turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million over three years from the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army.

Personnel

Staff

Roster

Regular season

Schedule

In the 2002 regular season, the Cardinals’ non-divisional, conference opponents were primarily from the NFC East, although they also played the Carolina Panthers from the NFC South, and the Detroit Lions from the

NFC North The National Football Conference – Northern Division or NFC North is one of the four divisions of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). Nicknamed the "Black and Blue Division" for the rough and tough r ...

. Their non-conference opponents were from the

AFC West The American Football Conference – Western Division or AFC West is one of the four divisions of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The division comprises the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, Las ...

, the second consecutive season the Cardinals faced the AFC West. Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Game Summaries

Week 2: at Seattle Seahawks

Week 10: vs. Seattle Seahawks

Week 14: vs. Detroit Lions

Standings

Awards and records

Milestones

References

Cardinals on Pro Football ReferenceCardinals on jt-sw.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 Arizona Cardinals Season Arizona Cardinals Arizona Cardinals seasons

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...