Fitzgerald soaring to reach every pass and level that comes his way
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Larry Fitzgerald
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TAMPA, Fla. -- Back in the desert, Larry Fitzgerald perpetually, habitually looks up. For the ball. For the Ring of Honor around University of Phoenix Stadium. For his Pro Football Hall of Fame aspirations and the atmosphere into which he soars, trying to find his ceiling, his limit.
He looks up, and he keeps on ascending. Larry Fitzgerald Sr. imagines the same Arizona sky, the heavens, and he tears up.
"You know what? The last time his mother saw him play was here in Phoenix," this proud father, a sports writer with the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, was saying last week standing outside the Arizona Cardinals' locker room at their Tempe, Ariz., facility.
"The Insight Bowl. His freshman year at Pitt. That's where he made that awesome catch. Dec. 26 [2002 at then-Bank One Ballpark]. That was the last game she saw him play. I think that's why he feels so comfortable playing out here." Against a desert sky.
Carol Fitzgerald, more than a matriarch to a husband and two boys but to a Minneapolis where she founded two AIDS-related agencies, died at age 47 -- after a 7-year struggle with cancer -- in the spring of their firstborn's sophomore year at Pitt. Her voice still resonates on the family home's answering machine. Her driver's license sits next to the firstborn's in his wallet.
"We all miss her so badly," the father said, halting to compose himself. "That's really what's been hard about this whole thing. It's one thing to dream about your kid playing in the NFL. It's another thing to dream about your kid playing in the Super Bowl. But, man, for it to happen ..."
Fitzgerald Jr. rises to catch such dreams. Then he constantly tries to rise higher.
He had 100-plus catches in two of his first four pro years, but felt he needed to be more physical, more of a precise route runner, more of a yards-after-catch threat. Then he went out and accomplished all of them in a 96-catch campaign that resulted in a career-high 12 touchdowns and a yard more per catch than his career average.
He earned his third Pro Bowl berth in six years just a month ago, then went out and broke or tied three NFL playoff records in propelling the 89-year-old franchise to its inaugural NFC championship and Super Bowl XLIII berth, opposite the Steelers Sunday.
Two of those records carried the name of the standard bearer for receivers: Jerry Rice.
"Wow, that's amazing. Amazing," said the father, who because of his son has become addressed as Fitzgerald Sr. His three first-half touchdowns in the 32-25, NFC championship against Philadelphia Jan. 18 tied an NFL championship record shared by five others, including Hall of Famer Otto Graham and Emmitt Smith. His 152 yards receiving made him the fourth player to top 100 in three consecutive playoff games, equaling Hall of Famer Tom Fears and eventual inductees Rice and Randy Moss. And his 419 playoff receiving yards, on 23 catches (for a gaudy 18.2 yards average), surpassed the legendary Rice's 409 total from 1988.
"The three touchdowns, the yards, consecutive games ..." the father continued. "Then to know he's done it in three games.
"It isn't just the playoffs. He's had five straight 100-yard games. Five straight games with a touchdown. And the team won four out of that five. That's huge."
"This guy's kind of special," Steelers defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau, a veteran of 50 NFL years, said in what for him constitutes high praise.
"The guy's an incredible freak," added Cardinals No. 3 quarterback Brian St. Pierre, a former Steelers reserve. "You run out of words to say about the guy."
Here's one more word: unfulfilled.
Said Fitzgerald Jr. simply: "I'm not where I want to be."
He looks up, soars to meet a level, a Kurt Warner pass, rarefied air. And he incessantly wants more, higher, better.
"We all know he is amazingly talented," Warner said. "But I think what he's done this year is continue to learn the nuances of the game and expand his knowledge of how to play, how to run routes, how to attack defenders, and that makes him better and better. [The other week], he was just saying, even though he's had a lot of success, he understands how much room he has to improve."
"He has been on fire," said his receiving mate, Anquan Boldin, about whom Sports Illustrated compared to the great 1-2 tandems in NFL history, along with Steelers' Hall of Famers Lynn Swann and John Stallworth. "He's taken his game to another level."
Sean Morey, another ex-Steelers player, cited Fitzgerald's drive, focus, preparation, exemplary work habits and was reminded of the Steelers' Troy Polamalu.
"I watched him in college, and he was pretty doggone good there, too," said Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt, a Steelers assistant in the 2002-03 seasons when Fitzgerald collected 161 passes, second place in Heisman Trophy voting, won a Walter Camp, Biletnikoff and Dapper Dan award, and was the NFL's third overall pick by his virtual godfather growing up as a Minnesota Vikings ballboy, Dennis Green. "He's improved himself this year even with some of the things he had worked on: his run after catch, his blocking and his route running. When you see a dynamic player like that who wants to be great, the sky is the limit."
"You look at [2007] film, he's such a different player," St. Pierre continued of the team's star who shed 15 pounds in the past year. "He's so much better than he was last year. What makes Larry great is he wants to be great. He wants to be mentioned as one of the greats. He wants his name in the [Cardinals'] Ring of Honor and Hall of Fame. And he'll get that."
He is 25 years old. A glorious road lay before him.
Yet life comes with pockmarks, with potholes.
Signing in March a hefty $40 million, four-year deal due to keep him with the Cardinals until 2011, Fitzgerald's big ticket could alter the club's salary cap coming off a Super Bowl that may enrich a few teammates with expiring contracts.
Then, barely three months ago, there was an incident in which the mother of his infant son was granted an order of protection against him, after a reported domestic incident for which Fitzgerald faces no criminal charges. Angela Nazario, 38, a former Raiders cheerleader from Flagstaff, Ariz., alleged in court documents that he grabbed the back of her neck and pushed her to the floor in an argument amid an overnight visit with their son. Nazario, who had a five-year relationship with Fitzgerald, had filed a paternity action lawsuit against him in 2007 before their son was born last January.
Everything was bay breezes and sunshine inside an interview tent yesterday afternoon at the Cardinals' Grand Hyatt digs along the Causeway. Fitzgerald arrived resplendent in a brown suit, soft-pink dress shirt, striped tie and matching pocket square. He had on fashionable glasses, diamond earrings and the look of a man at ease despite the dozens of reporters crowding around his podium.
Coincidentally, his father wasn't there. Fitzgerald Sr. -- a small-college All-American lineman who went on to a career as a radio personality and sports writer with the Twin Cities' African-American newspaper -- will be covering his 30th Super Bowl this week in the Tampa Bay area. Mostly, though, he'll be giving interviews about the eldest of the two boys he raised alone the past half-decade, younger Marcus having graduated from Marshall and still attempting to launch a pro career as a receiver.
Two days before playing the Eagles for the NFC championship, the son responded to a question about his personality: "I just know my dad used to give me a lot of spankings. I was raised by a strict disciplinarian. He laid down the law. I think my brother and I both got a good dosage of that, and I think that's just the way I've always been." He looked to the back corner of the interview room. He grinned. "Hi, dad."
This time, Fitzgerald Sr. and Jr. made it, together. With the improbable Cardinals owning two playoff victories in 88 previous seasons and three this month. With No. 11 arising to lead them.
Without Carol Fitzgerald.
"It's something she came to every year," the son said of his mother and the Super Bowl. "For her not to be here ..."
For once, he looked down.
First Published January 27, 2009 12:00 am
