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TEMPE, Ariz. -- Bill Bidwill, that most unemotional of NFL owners, was in tears on the sideline as the game ended and thousands of fans stormed the field.

	Arizona's Tommy Bennett (right) and Trey Junkin mob kicker Chris Jacke after the Cardinals beat the Chargers.

A decade after they moved to Arizona from St. Louis, and for the first time since the strike-shortened season of 1982, Bidwill's Cardinals were in the playoffs.

"It was a wonderful feeling," he said, "a wonderful feeling."

In the locker-room celebration Sunday after Chris Jacke's last-second 52-yard field goal gave the Cardinals a 16-13 victory, the portly, bearded owner clutched a football in one arm.

"It's the one that went through the upright for the win," Bidwill said. "No one else is going to get it."

Across the room, Larry Centers and Aeneas Williams, players who went through the worst of times in the team's woeful days in the desert, cherished the moment.

"I've got to pinch myself to see if this is a dream or not," Centers said, "but we're actually in the dance. There were times I didn't feel like this day would come.

"It's just a great day in the life of a longtime Cardinal. Believe me."

Williams admitted that he, too, cried at the finish, looking up at a Sun Devil Stadium filled almost to capacity with more than 71,000 red-and white-clad Cardinal fans, delirious after yet another hair-raising triumph.

No matter that the Cardinals were just 9-7, barely earned the last NFC playoff berth and never beat a winning team all year.

	"	It was almost as if we were going up a hill and the people at the top of the hill were fighting us. ... I think we've finally gotten to the top. "
		- Cardinals CB Aeneas Williams

"It was almost as if we were going up a hill and the people at the top of the hill were fighting us. And it happened again today," Williams said. "I think we've finally gotten to the top, and we can see what's up there. I think it's going to change the history of this franchise."

Centers has been a Cardinal for nine years, Williams for eight. Both have been to Pro Bowls, but they'd never played on a winner, never seen a minute of action in a playoff game. While other players bailed out through the Cardinals' struggles, they chose to stay.

"To all the guys who jumped ship on us, look at us now," Centers said. "We're in the big show."

To Centers and Williams, all the bad times made this day even sweeter.

"To put so much time, blood, sweat and tears into one organization, and to see benefits come out of it, it's just a great moment," Centers said.

Jake Plummer, the young quarterback with the big new contract, called Centers and Williams "the two hardest-working guys on the team."

"They've been here and gone through the seasons of losing. They come out with the same attitude, win or lose, and they practice hard," Plummer said. "I want to play for this team to win. I want to play for myself to win. And I want to play for those guys, especially, because they're not going to be playing for too much longer.

"The sooner we can get them to the promised land, the better."

Bidwill already had planned his celebration.

"For an ordinary win, it's one scoop of ice cream," he said. "When we come back to win at the end, it's two. Tonight, I'll have three scoops. I've never done that before."