A.Q. Shipley doesn't have Ron Wolfley's growl, but will bring same passion | Opinion

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It was just a coincidence, but the Arizona Cardinals decided to introduce their new radio analyst on the same day they held their annual Red & White Practice at State Farm Stadium. It was during that specific event seven years ago on the same field when center A.Q. Shipley suffered a torn ACL and was lost for the entire 2018 season.

“Yeah, thanks for the memory,” Shipley said sarcastically as he met with reporters on Aug. 2.

“You’re not the only one,” he added. “My mom and sister said the same thing when I was coming up here today. They’re like, ‘Hey, don’t fall down the stairs.’”

The 39-year-old Shipley didn’t stumble once during his re-introductory news conference. He nailed it like a perfect shotgun snap or deftly picking up a blitz like he did so often during his 12-year NFL career. Although he won a Super Bowl title with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during his final season in 2020, Shipley’s best years in the league came with the Cardinals from 2015-19.

Although he learned the game early on during his time at Penn State and into his pro tenure, Arizona is the place where he mastered it all, and why he appears to be the perfect replacement in the Cardinals’ radio booth for former longtime color commentator Ron Wolfley.

“I don’t even know if I can,” Shipley said when asked about following in the footsteps of Wolfley, who called Cardinals’ games on the radio alongside play-by-play man Dave Pasch for the past 20 seasons until stepping down from that role earlier this year. “That voice is unduplicatable, if that’s even a word. The growl, the sound, it’s so recognizable in this city. For me, I’m not even going to try to do that. I don’t have that deep of a voice. I don’t have that growl.

“But I do study the heck out of football. I know football inside and out. I know offensive line play, obviously more than most, but I also know the whole field. I know the whole game, and I think I can bring a unique perspective from that.”

Playing center, one of the most challenging positions in football, should help. It allowed Shipley to see the game from the inside out. The fact that he began his college career as a nose tackle gave him even more insight into what the defense and the offense were all about.

But it was learning under former coach Bruce Arians during three separate stops in their careers together, including their time with the Cardinals, that taught him the most and expanded his knowledge.

“You can remember him saying countless cuss words at receivers over the years for not breaking ‘hot,’“ Shipley said of Arians. “That was a big deal. To know what breaking ‘hot’ means as an offensive lineman, you need to understand protection. You need to know what makes somebody go ‘hot.’ You need to understand the safety rotation, a lot of different things that maybe you don’t ask the center to do in today’s day and age.

“But from that standpoint, I was able to see the game in a lot of ways and facets, and I think that helps me.”

Being part of a successful podcast this past year with former Cardinals’ teammates Colt McCoy and Justin Pugh and others also helped pave the way to this transition. Don’t underestimate his frequent appearances on the Pat McAfee Show over the past four years, either. Those segments in a live setting, where almost anything goes, gave Shipley the freedom and confidence to be himself and speak with clarity and detail from an offensive lineman’s perspective on the national stage.

“I got pretty good practice being on a live show over the last four years,” Shipley says, adding he only got butterflies before playing football, not talking about it. “That probably helped me a ton. For me, talking football is the easiest thing in the world. I can come up here and give a speech about anything other than football and be nervous. But you start talking about safety rotation and 4-3 defenses, and I get a little excited.”

Having covered Shipley during his run with the Cardinals, I can tell you he was one of the most honest and upfront guys in the locker room when it came to getting at the truth. He never exposed any real secrets, and he refused to publicly throw a teammate under the bus, but he always led you in the right direction when you were searching for answers.

He was always as open and forthright as he could be, and having known him over the years since, I don’t expect that to change one iota. That’s why I predict he will become the Valley’s next, new popular version of Wolfley behind the mic on game days.

Shipley has never been afraid to speak his mind or throw shade where it needs to be thrown.

“I think you’re going to have to let me know in about six weeks,” he cracked, referring to the Cardinals’ season opener Sept. 7 at the New Orleans Saints. “Listen, I am who I am. That’s one thing I’ve always said. My wife says it. She’s like, ‘You’re either going to like him or you’re going to hate him.’

“At the end of the day, I’m honest. I’m very honest. I’m going to see the game and call the game the way it is. I’m going to be fair, but if somebody gets beat, I’m not just going to sit there and be like, ‘Oh, uh, let’s make an excuse for him.’ That’s not the way this works. Five minutes from now, nobody cares.”

Which brings us back to the beginning of A.Q. Shipley’s news conference when I asked him about how he crumbled to the turf and grabbed his injured knee seven years ago this week during Arizona’s Red & White Practice in Glendale.

Shipley ended up reclaiming his starting job a year later, but the Cardinals did something extremely rare by signing him to a one-year contract extension while he was still laid up in the hospital following surgery. It was a generous move for which Shipley says he will always be grateful.

And it sure beat what the team did immediately after he wrecked his knee.

“Since you brought it up,” Shipley said, talking about moving on and speaking from the heart. “Go back to 2018. I’m lying on the ground in front of all these fans, and what did they do? They moved the drill up 5 yards. Nobody cares. They’re on to the next. That’s the way it works.”

That’s how Shipley plans to analyze Cardinals’ games moving forward. He will have enormous help by being in the same booth as the polished professional Pasch, who is entering his 24^th season as the team’s play-by-play man.

“Dave’s a legend,” Shipley said. “I’ll just try to stay in his hip pocket.”

Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B on ESPN 620 (KTAR-AM).