"The Cardinals have done the unthinkable. They have cleaned up their act with a high-pressure hose, transforming one of the worst brands in sports.

They are now a respectable, competitive franchise that took flight with role models and good guys, including a head coach known to draw up plays while sitting in church.

And then Joey Porter went down in a Taco Bell parking lot.

"Something we always talk about with our players is their image in the community, how important that is, and how people will look up to you as role models," Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt said. "And maybe there's a perception with Joey around the league, from people who've played against him. But I've been around Joey for a number of years, and never had any problems with him."

Already, Porter has made star-struck Cardinals fans a bit uneasy. His signing on March 19 salvaged the offseason, bringing new swagger to a decimated defense. His arrest eight days later soured the mood, breaking Jason Richardson's record for shortest honeymoon in a new city.

Richardson was traded to the Suns in December 2008, received a DUI within 11 days, and bottomed out a couple months later when he was arrested for reckless driving. While the circumstances are much different with Porter, Richardson is only now beginning to win back the trust of basketball fans in the Valley.

"We're still waiting for the process to unfold," Whisenhunt said. "But we're aware of what happened, and I feel comfortable in my conversations with Joey."

Surely, Cardinals fans will forgive and forget this time, even if Porter is disciplined by the NFL. They are anxious to see his fury on the football field, and if he can shore up a defense that allowed 90 points in two playoff games.

The cold-hearted truth: Last year's defense was inherently flawed and dramatically inconsistent, full of great athletes who talked a great game and occasionally played well. They needed an attitude change, a personality transplant.

"I keep going back to that Green Bay playoff game, and how a defense that gave up 10 points in the first half could allow 35 in the second half," Whisenhunt said. "And it always gets back to mental toughness. We need more of an edge behind us defensively as far as backing up the talk that we put out there, and I think Joey brings a lot of that to the field."

In the coming months, Porter's presence will be heavily monitored, and he'll be an ongoing source of fascination. He's a devoted family man with an autistic daughter, and yet he's a hardcore dude who was shot in the buttocks outside a Denver sports bar in 2003, caught in gunfire that left another man dead. "