Arizona Cardinals' Jace Whittaker hanging on to NFL dream after taste of game action

Being from Oceanside, Calif., means there's one big football presence whose legacy lives on in the beach town north of San Diego.

It's that of the late Junior Seau, the longtime San Diego Chargers legend and Pro Football Hall-of-Famer who died in 2012. Seau had an impact on Cardinals cornerback Jace Whittaker, who also played football at Oceanside High School.

"He's a major influence. He's the only one at Oceanside High School with his number retired. So you go into the gym and you see all the banners hanging up," Whittaker said. You see his trophies and individual awards, and then when he came back into town, you know, it meant a lot. A very intense dude."

But while Seau was the sports king of the town, Whittaker's sports role models were people he saw every day. His father Jerry played in college and in the Chicago White Sox organization, and older brother J.J. played football at San Diego State.

They helped pave the way for Whittaker take his football talents to Arizona, recruited by former head coach Rich Rodriguez and his staff, and Whittaker played cornerback in Tucson from 2015 to 2019. As a part-time Cardinal ever since, he's played football in the state for seven straight years.

Undrafted, Whittaker, 27, is trying to keep his NFL dream alive. He's been up and down between the practice squad and active roster the past two seasons, and has played in six career games.

Whittaker led the Cardinals with seven tackles in the preseason opener at Cincinnati, then added two more against Baltimore last week.

"Those are the cards I'm dealt. And if anything, that's the hunger that it provides me. I've tasted a few games. And that's what keeps me going," Whittaker said. "I compete with myself every day, every day is a competition for me to get better. Coach (Kliff)  Kingsbury said you go out there and you get better yourself. I take that to heart, and that's what I'm going to do."

There are roster spots to be won at cornerback, and nothing is certain for Whittaker. But his coaches have faith in him.

"He's a guy that we've always relied on to just be that safety net, and he's a guy who's going to be in the right place. He knows the defense inside out," Kingsbury said. "Just been really impressed with his growth over the last three years coming as a free agent. He's really earned everybody's trust on our staff that if we put him in a game, he's going to be in the right spot to make a play."

McBride's moment

Cardinals tight end Trey McBride made his way to the front of the large group of players in the pregame tunnel on Sunday, aiming to lead his teammates onto the field at State Farm Stadium prior to the start of the preseason game against Baltimore.

In his first game as a Cardinal, he wanted to make a lasting memory.

"Just to get be around the guys and to finally get ready to suit up with those guys, it was special," McBride said after Cardinals practice Wednesday in Nashville. "My first time to play as an Arizona Cardinal, that was very special to me and something that I'll remember for a long time. I was very thankful that I was able to lead the guys out and go play that game."

Scholarship winner

The Cardinals on Thursday announced Allyson Wachtel as the 2022 recipient of the Adele Harris Scholarship.

Wachtel is a graduate of Tempe Corona del Sol High School, She starred for the school’s soccer team, where she served as a team captain for two seasons, was a three-time 6A Central first-team all-region selection and was selected Tempe All-City Athlete three times (2019, 2020, 2022). Wachtel will play soccer at Colorado Mesa University beginning this fall, where she will major in Public Accounting and plans on pursuing a master’s degree in Sports Management.

The annually awarded $10,000 scholarship is in honor of Harris, the first African American woman to hold a front office position in the NFL. It is given to a graduating high school student in Arizona who is pursuing a career in sports.

Get in touch with Jose Romero at Jose.Romero@gannett.com. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM. 

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona Cardinals' Jace Whittaker hopes for more game action in 2022