Arizona Cardinals look to move on, keep focus amid Jonathan Dwyer situation

TEMPE, Ariz. — It was not a normal Thursday at the Arizona Cardinals’ Tempe training facility.

“Obviously something’s different on a Thursday for me to be talking to you,” Cardinals coach Bruce Arians told the assembled media. Indeed, Thursday is generally a day where Arians does not speak to the media.

“You come in the locker room today, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen this kind of media contingency here in the Cardinals’ Thursday, Week 3 locker room before,” receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “This is like the Super Bowl a couple years ago. We understand that there’s a lot of eyes on us and we have to hone in. We have to have that bunker mentality, you’ve got to just rely on each other and fight for each other.”

This is what happens when a team has a player who was arrested on charges of domestic violence, just as running back Jonathan Dwyer has been. Dwyer, who was in the locker room Wednesday before practice, was taken away from the practice facility by police.

“This is a new one for me,” Arians said. “I’ve been on for 37 years and I’ve never had anything like this at the facility or anything. I’ve seen domestic violence, don’t get me wrong, but this type of situation, no.”

The truth is, while it may seem like this type of occurrence is or has become commonplace in the NFL, the fact of the matter is it’s always a surprise.

“I think everybody was in shock yesterday,” Arians said of how the team reacted to Dwyer’s arrest. “They all know John. But we’ve got a job to do, so we had to have a good practice. We’re playing for first place and we cannot allow any distractions. And then we had a great practice yesterday and then we had a great one today.”

It may seem a bit callous, and the Cardinals certainly expressed concern for Dwyer and his family, but football has not stopped. Sunday’s game against the San Francisco 49ers will be played, and as it was 48 hours ago before the Dwyer news broke, it’s a big one.

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