TEMPE, Ariz. -- Toward the very end of Karlos Dansby’s third (yes, third) introductory press conference with the Arizona Cardinals, the laughs quieted and the smiles went away.
Dansby, who’s mastered the art of winning the press conference with humor and a cache of one-liners, got serious. He talked about texting wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who also was drafted by Arizona in 2004, and telling him this was the year they need to win a championship. They came close -- very close -- once before and the memory of losing Super Bowl XLIII has weighed heavily on Dansby ever since. It was one of the reasons Dansby signed a one-year deal with Arizona on Friday, to finish what he started eight years ago, when the Cardinals lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“It’s time to finish what we started,” Dansby said as the press room inside the Cardinals’ practice facility quieted to the point you could hear the hum of the lights. “Definitely time to finish what we started. I want that minute and 30 seconds back. I’ve been hunting for that sucker for a long time. Got some work to do to get it back. Yeah.”
And that was it.
Dansby was talking about the Steelers’ last offensive drive, late in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLIII. It actually lasted 2:02, finishing with Ben Roethlisberger hitting Santonio Holmes over three Cardinals defensive backs for a touchdown that put the Steelers up for good. He tried to avenge that loss in 2013, his second stint with the Cardinals, but Arizona didn’t make the playoffs.
On Thursday, when his phone rang with a 602 area code, Dansby wasn’t going to pick up because the number wasn’t in his contacts. Then he looked at the clock and noticed it was 4:02 p.m. ET -- two minutes after free agency began -- and realized he had to answer. It was Cardinals general manager Steve Keim on the other end, asking Dansby if he was ready to “come home.”
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m ready to come home. Let’s make this happen,’” Dansby recalled.
After spending a few hours around the Cardinals’ building on Friday, Dansby said that the coaching staff was “just locked in and they’re ready to make a run.”
At 35, he returns to Arizona as a 13-year veteran with a new perspective on football and life thanks to the last three seasons -- two in Cleveland and one in Cincinnati.
“I think that’s what I needed to go through in order to come back here and finish what I started,” he said. “I’m looking forward to this.”
Dansby has kept tabs on the Cardinals since he left and thinks the team is “very, very, very” close to winning the franchise’s first Lombardi Trophy. He thinks the talent is there. It’s just a matter of some players sacrificing more and going all in.
“If they do that, I don’t think anybody can really stop them,” he said.
“It’s just time to put it all together. Hopefully, I can come in and help guys understand the magnitude of this opportunity. It doesn’t come around often. We haven’t been back to this point since ’08. We tried to make another run in ’09, but we got cut short. It doesn’t happen often. You’ve got this much talent in the building, it’s time you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
Dansby insisted this won’t be his last season. Things change, though, with a ring.
That’s why he returned to the Cardinals for a third time. Yes, a third time.
“I couldn’t write this if I tried,” Dansby said.