{"id":733278,"date":"2026-02-06T11:14:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733278\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T11:14:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T11:14:20","slug":"cardinals-budda-baker-wins-art-rooney-sportsmanship-award-at-2026-nfl-honors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/733278\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals’ Budda Baker wins Art Rooney Sportsmanship award at 2026 NFL Honors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFeb 5, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; Budda Baker on the NFL Honors Red Carpet before Super Bowl LX at Palace of Fine Arts. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

GLENDALE \u2013\u00a0After three straight years of being a finalists, Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker earned the Art Rooney Sportsmanship award at the 2026 NFL Honors. The eight-time Pro Bowler was praised from division rivals like Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua and San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittel for being a fierce competitor on the field, but still carrying a level of respect throughout.<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading this post, don’t forget to subscribe!
\n\"Cardinals\"<\/p>\n

Dec 7, 2025; Glendale, Arizona, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) against the Los Angeles Rams at State Farm Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Baker wins Art Rooney award:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred and twenty percent energy on every single play, never takes a snap off,\u201d Kittle told NFL Films. \u201cAnd he is going to hit the heck out of you, and he is going to chase you down. When you go against guys like that, you have to be so dialed in on every single play, because on any snap he can completely change the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Nov 3, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Arizona Cardinals safety Budda Baker (3) leaves the field after defeating the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Baker joins Larry Fitzgerald as the only Cardinals player to win the award, as the first-ballot Hall of Famer was the inaugural reception. The two-time All-Pro recorded his sixth 100+ tackle season this past year, having 120 combine and 57 solo. A massive highlight from the 2025 season was recording his first interception since Week 15 2022.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old is widely respected because of his hard playing style, while not being penalized often. In nearly 5,000 snaps, Baker has less than a dozen penalties over his career. Heading into 2026, Baker will continue being a leader under new head coach Mike LaFleur.<\/p>\n

BREAKING: Cardinals\u2019 Larry Fitzgerald elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame 2026 class<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Get the BEST Phoenix sports insider information, and exclusive content.\u00a0<\/a>SIGN UP HERE<\/a>\u00a0to unlock our premium content!*
\nReporter Tanner Tortorella covers general assignment for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on his X account,\u00a0@<\/a>TannerTSports<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 5, 2026; San Francisco, CA, USA; Budda Baker on the NFL Honors Red Carpet before Super Bowl…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2078],"tags":[375,390,2604,1327,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-733278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arizona-cardinals","8":"tag-arizona","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-arizonacardinals","11":"tag-cardinals","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116023400126588994","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}