Quick Answer: The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The Cardinals compete in the National Football League as a member of the National Football Conference West division. The team plays its home games at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, a suburb northwest of the state capital of Phoenix. The team was established in Chicago in 1898 as the Morgan Athletic Club, and joined the NFL as a charter member on September 17, 1920. The Cardinals are the oldest continuously run professional football franchise in the United States, and, along with the Chicago Bears, are the only NFL charter member franchises still in operation. In 1960, the team moved to St. Louis, where it was commonly referred to as the "Football Cardinals", the "Gridbirds", or the "Big Red" to avoid confusion with Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals.