How to watch the Arizona Cardinals-Kansas City Chiefs game — with excitement and skepticism

How to watch the Kansas City Chiefs-Arizona Cardinals game Sunday that kicks off the NFL season for both teams?

With excitement, of course, leavened by the appropriate amount of skepticism. The Cardinals have earned both.

On paper this is not just a great game, it’s great TV. CBS, which broadcasts the game at 1:25 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11 must think so. It’s sending its No. 1 broadcast team, Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, to State Farm Stadium in Glendale to call the game. This is a relative rarity — CBS is home to the AFC, while the Cardinals play in the NFC and usually get Fox announcers. So there’s that.

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It's Patrick Mahomes vs. Kyler Murray. How can you not watch?

The Cardinals don’t always score the No. 1 teams when it comes to calling games (though sometimes they do).

That’s the excitement part.

I mean, the game also has the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes — you can maybe argue that someone else is a better quarterback, but are there any others you’d rather watch? — and the Cardinals’ Kyler Murray, who can be just exciting, if not more so. It’s the consistency part Murray doesn’t have down yet.

It’ll be interesting to see how heavy the weight of Murray’s gargantuan contract turns out to be once he’s on the field. And if there’s any hangover from the bizarre, since-removed clause that required a certain amount of film study if he wanted to keep that contract. This is back-up-the-money-truck territory. That’s a lot of pressure.

But when Murray and the Cardinals are clicking, they’re really fun to watch. They move down the field with the ruthless efficiency of a well-executed fast break in basketball. They seem particularly adept at doing this during the first part of the season.

Which brings us to the skeptical part of the viewing experience.

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But will it be deja vu?

Any Cardinals fan will recall that the team started last season 7-0. MVP talk swirled around Murray. They were winning and looked good doing it.

Then it all fell apart. An injury to DeAndre Hopkins, who is somehow a little underrated despite being as great as he is, certainly didn’t help. The Cardinals went 4-6 after their blazing start and lost to the eventual Super Bowl champions, the Los Angeles Rams, in the first round of the playoffs.

That ain’t great.

But the Cardinals’ late-season swoons have become a feature, not a bug.

And Hopkins will miss the first six games of the new season for violating the NFL’s Performance Enhancing Drug Policy.

That really ain’t great.

Marquise Brown, for whom the team traded in the off-season, should be fun to watch. Not Hopkins fun — Hopkins can catch anything, including the famous Hail Murray pass during the 2020 season. Still, Brown gives fans something to look forward to.

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The NFL season will end with the Super Bowl at State Farm Stadium

But you know what is really great? The NFL is back. And people love to watch it. Love to watch it.

Remember when the NFL announced prior to the 2021-22 season that “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — often called the Black national anthem — would be played in addition to “The Star Spangled Banner?"

Remember how some people got all up in arms and stamped their feet and whined that they were going to boycott the NFL and watch? I don’t know, reruns of Trump rallies or something on Sundays instead?

Remember how 75 of the 100 highest-rated TV programs in 2021 were NFL games?

I do.

Also, the last game of the season will be played where this one is — the Super Bowl will be at State Farm Stadium. The last two seasons the teams that play their home games in the stadiums where the big game is held have won it all.

Anyone for three in a row? Eh, maybe if they called the season after it was halfway over. But with Murray at the controls you never know — good or bad.

But we do know this: The Cardinals are usually an intriguing watch, whether it’s to admire their play or to mourn it. Here we go again. And I can’t wait.

How to watch Chiefs-Cardinals

1:25 p.m. Sunday on CBS.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chiefs at Cardinals kick off the NFL season. Why it's must-see TV