Larry Fitzgerald said goodbye to Pitt and probably to Pittsburgh yesterday at a news conference at the team's training facility on the South Side. Let's hope someone video recorded the sessions because it should be employed as a powerful learning tool.

This tape of Fitzgerald's solo performance should be sold or given to every college football program in America and every high school. Every young person who has a chance to be in the public eye should see for himself the way Fitzgerald conducts his business.

This is must-see viewing. This is how you handle yourself in this situation. This is who you thank. This is what you say. This is what you wear.

No one, though, is likely to get it as well as Fitzgerald, no matter how hard and long they study this tape. Fitzgerald, who in two years of college football became the greatest wide receiver in Pitt history, didn't learn it from a videotape or a book or any sophisticated learning device. He learned it the old-fashioned way -- from his parents.

How proud Larry's dad, Larry Fitzgerald, must have been yesterday as he watched his son address the media. How sad that Larry's mom, Carol Fitzgerald, who died 10 months ago, couldn't be there to see what a man her son has become.

As expected, Fitzgerald announced that he was forgoing his final two seasons of eligibility and would be entering the NFL draft.

Has there ever been an underclassman more ready?

Of course, we knew he was ready on the field. His status as unanimous All-American, as winner of the Walter Camp Player of the Year award, as the winner of the Biletnikoff Award, as runner-up in the Heisman Trophy voting and his possession of four NCAA records -- including touchdown catches in 18 consecutive games -- tell us that.

Just two seasons after Antonio Bryant carved out his niche as the greatest receiver in Pitt history, the magnificence of Fitzgerald has relegated Bryant to a distant second.

But as much as he's ready on the field, he's also ready to handle the pressures and responsibilities that go with being a professional athlete at age 20 off the field.

So there he stood yesterday dressed for the occasion. Dark suit, red tie, white shirt. No sloppy sweats, no baseball cap turned backwards. That's the uniform of most college athletes, regardless of the occasion. It's not the uniform of Fitzgerald.

No one should have been surprised at his eloquence, at his thoughtfulness, at his bearing. We've seen him before.

His comments at the Heisman Trophy presentation, when he finished second to Oklahoma quarterback Jason White, deserve repeating. When asked to talk about what he had done for the Pitt program, Fitzgerald said, "I prefer to look at it the other way. I prefer to look at what the university has done for me. It helped me evolve as a person and as a player. It's an honor to put on the Blue and Gold every Saturday."

Without using notes, Fitzgerald spoke eloquently and earnestly yesterday about his time at Pitt. He began with thanks. First, for Mr. Long (athletic director Jeff Long) and coach (Walt) Harris and then for all the assistant coaches and his teammates. He did not forget, and this was so classy, Pitt's assistant athletic director for media relations, E.J. Borghetti, the man who so superbly orchestrated the understated but enormously effective Heisman campaign for Fitzgerald.

It's more than his words that set Fitzgerald apart. It's the way he conducts himself on the field. No celebrating, no cries for attention. When he scores a touchdown he doesn't dance. He hands the ball to the referee.

"Excessive celebration doesn't have a place in the game," he said.

Most of all, it's his obvious character traits. He's humble and modest, attributes that have all but vanished not just among the modern-day athlete, but the entire generation that is coming of age in America. He's young, famous and about to be extremely wealthy, but he hasn't changed and never will.

In all likelihood he will be among the first five players drafted and the recipient of a signing bonus in eight figures. Cornerback Terence Newman, selected fifth in the draft last year by the Dallas Cowboys, signed a contract valued at $33 million that included a $13 million signing bonus.

"It's an exciting time and it's a sad time," Fitzgerald said. "I love the city. I love the university. I'm really going to miss this."

The feeling is mutual.

What a young man. We'll not soon see the likes of him again -- on the field and off of it. He's a special player and a special person.