Tag: Larry Fitzgerald

Countdown to Larry Fitzgerald’s Hall of Fame selection begins!

Cardinals legend Larry Fitzgerald headlines the players in their first year of eligibility for the Hall of Fame in 2026.

The NFL announced on Thursday the newest Pro Football Hall of Fame class at the NFL Honors ceremony. The newest members of the Hall of Fame are Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Antonio Gates and Sterling Sharpe.

With the induction of the 2025 class, the countdown has officially begun for next year’s class, which has one very important name for Arizona Cardinals fans.

It will be the first year that Cardinals legendary receiver Larry Fitzgerald is eligible to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He is arguably the headliner of an impressive group of players who enter their first year of eligibility next year.

He and Drew Brees are likely the two players most likely to make it in their first year of eligibility.

Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray certainly thinks so, as he made that clear on social media, replying to a list of the players becoming eligible next year, simply stating “first ballot,” referring to Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald played his entire 17-year career with the Cardinals. He holds virtually every franchise receiving record and trails only Jerry Rice all-time for career receptions and career receiving yards.

It will be a big year for Cardinals fans in that sense. He retired from the NFL without any announcement, so fans have not yet been able to publicly celebrate his career. A Hall of Fame nod would probably trigger some ceremony or recognition at a game and also probably the retiring of No. 11, so that no player ever wears it again (no one has since his retirement).

If next year’s NFL Honors ceremony is again the Thursday night before Super Bowl LV, then we can mark Feb. 5, 2026 as the day for Larry Legend’s Hall of Fame selection — in 363 days.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

 

 

Cardinals legend’s son could play college football in Arizona

Larry Fitzgerald’s son Devin Fitzgerald has scholarship offers from ASU, Arizona.

Arizona Cardinals fans all know about legendary receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who will end up in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. His son, Devin Fitzgerald, plays wide receiver as well. He is a junior at Brophy in Phoenix and has received several scholarship offers to a number of universities, including places like Boston College, Florida State and Iowa State.

He announced via social media on Tuesday that he was given a scholarship offer by Arizona State after meeting with the Sun Devils’ receivers coach, Hines Ward, who played 14 years in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

He has also been offered by Arizona, Arizona State’s rival university in Tucson.

Per 247 Sports, he has 21 offers.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have probably the greatest athlete in Arizona sports history see his son become a star locally as well?

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Larry Fitzgerald to receive Musial Award on CBS Sunday

Arizona Cardinals fans can see former wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald receive the Musial Award for Extraordinary Character on Sunday.

Arizona Cardinals fans can see former wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald receive the Musial Award for Extraordinary Character on Sunday.

The Musial Awards, named in honor of former St. Louis Cardinals baseball great Stan Musial, have been held in St. Louis every November since 2005.

The awards celebrate the year’s greatest moments of sportsmanship and those in sports who embody class and character. The mission is to encourage kindness, selflessness, integrity and civility in sports and society – and to inspire people across the nation to be good sports.

Broadcaster Bob Costas received the Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award, while Billy Crystal performed at the event and also had a conversation with Costas.

The show will air at 3 p.m. Arizona ( 5 p.m. ET) time on on Sunday and again at 5 p.m. Arizona time (7 p.m. ET) on the CBS Sports Network.

“We are grateful that CBS Sports provides us the opportunity to share the inspiration, hope, and joy of the Musial Awards with the entire country,” said Marc Schreiber, president of the St. Louis Sports Commission, which, along with the National Sportsmanship Foundation, produces the Musial Awards. “The show rises to a new level this year as we are honored to recognize the likes of Bob Costas, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., and Salvador Perez, and have the participation of Billy Crystal.

“As always, we hope the humanity of our honorees and the heartwarming stories featured in the broadcast will uplift and inspire viewers throughout the nation.”

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Steelers special team ace nominated for Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award

The Steelers have nominated Miles Killebrew for the 11th annual Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award, honoring his integrity and dedication.

The NFL announced Monday morning that all 32 teams have nominated one player for the 11th annual Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award. Recipients of this prestigious honor must demonstrate exceptional sportsmanship both on and off the field. For their nomination, the Pittsburgh Steelers have selected special teams captain Miles Killebrew.

Previous winners of the award, which highlights outstanding sportsmanship, include legends such as LB Bobby Wagner, DT Calais Campbell, RB Adrian Peterson, QB Drew Brees, and WR Larry Fitzgerald, to name just a few.

For Killebrew, winning an award associated with these all-time great leaders of sportsmanship in the NFL would undoubtedly be a significant honor. His unwavering dedication to the game he loves may very well bring him one step closer to making this goal a reality.

Killebrew’s consistent display of integrity, respect, resilience, and dedication to the Pittsburgh Steelers exemplify the outstanding qualities of an Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award winner.

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Larry Fitzgerald to receive Musial Award for Extraordinary Character

Fitz will receive the 2024 Musial Award for Extraordinary Character at the awards ceremony on Nov. 23 at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis.

He becomes eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026 after a 17-year career with the Arizona Cardinals and is considered a sure-fire first-ballot enshrinee.

However, another honor is coming Larry Fitzgerald’s way earlier when he will receive the 2024 Musial Award for Extraordinary Character at the awards ceremony on Nov. 23 at the Stifel Theatre in St. Louis.

Fitzgerald joins broadcaster Bob Costas, who will be presented the 2024 Stan Musial Lifetime Achievement Award for Sportsmanship at the 2024 Musial Awards. Numerous people throughout the country are also honored for acts of sportsmanship.

The Musial Award for Extraordinary Character annually recognizes an individual who demonstrates remarkable class, perseverance, and overall sportsmanship.

Said Marc Schrieber, president of the St. Louis Sports Commission, which produces the awards, “Larry exemplifies all that’s right in sports. A true class act, we admire the honorable way he played the game and his dedication to making an immense difference through his philanthropic efforts. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to recognize Larry and celebrate the excellence, generosity, respect and goodwill he embodies.”

Presented by Maryville University in St. Louis, the awards are produced by the St. Louis Sports Commission and the National Sportsmanship Foundation, a charitable nonprofit organization. In addition to keeping the legacy of Stan Musial alive, the mission of the Musial Awards is to encourage kindness, selflessness, integrity and civility in sports and society – and to inspire people across the nation to be good sports. The event has occurred in St. Louis since 2005.

Known as The Most Inspiring Night in Sports®, the Musials will be packaged into a one-hour special that airs throughout the country on CBS in December.

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

11 days till the Cardinals’ season opener against the Bills

It is Larry Fitzgerald days away from the Cardinals’ season opener!

The Arizona Cardinals trimmed their roster to 53 players and now await practice squad additions, waiver wire additions and potentially other moves in free agency.

They are only 11 days away from their first game of the regular season, which will be on the road September 8 against the Buffalo Bills.

No. 11 is a number that won’t likely ever be used again, as it will most certainly be retired.

It belonged to receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who is arguably the best Cardinals player in franchise history.

He spent 17 years with the team and has every career franchise receiving record. He is second in NFL-all-time history in receptions and receiving yards, behind only Jerry Rice. He will certainly be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

The countdown continues!

Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.

 

Justin Jefferson’s contract extension is comparable to legends before him

Justin Jefferson is well on his way to being one of the best wide receivers of his generation, both on the field and financially.

Justin Jefferson is well on his way to being one of the best wide receivers of his generation, both on the field and financially.

Jefferson and the Vikings have agreed to four-year, $140 million extension, which was reported Monday.

Bill Barnwell of ESPN pointed out that the Vikings financially locked Jefferson into a deal comparable to those that legends at his position before him had. The money per year is, of course, higher, but the percentage of the team’s salary cap remains similar.

Barnwell points out that Jefferson’s contract takes up 13.7% of the Vikings’ cap. It aligns with the deals that Larry Fitzgerald signed with the Arizona Cardinals in 2011 and Calvin Johnson with the Detroit Lions in 2012.

Those contracts were both for eight years compared with the four years that Jefferson got. The Vikings’ overall salary cap total is also greater over a shorter period of time.

To Jefferson’s benefit, however, his deal comes when he is much younger than Fitzgerald and Johnson were when they got their extensions. Jefferson will turn 25 this month, while Fitzgerald was 28 and Johnson was 26 at the time of their deals.

How Larry Fitzgerald somehow became part of the Terry McDonough story

Larry Fitzgerald is a character in the odd story between the Cardinals and former team exec Terry McDonough.

The Arizona Cardinals were ordered to pay former executive Terry McDonough $3 million for defamatory statements they made publicly after he filed a grievance for wrongful termination and other things.

ESPN’s Tisha Thompson has the full report and revealed an interesting fact that somehow includes legendary receiver Larry Fitzgerald.

How?

Arbitrator Jeffrey Mishkin detailed how the Cardinals got info related to spousal abuse allegations they referred to in their public response to McDnough’s grievance.

In September 2018, former Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald received an unsolicited letter from McDonough’s former father-in-law accusing McDonough of abandoning his daughter. Fitzgerald gave the letter to a team executive who “did not notify Mr. Bidwill of the allegations in the letter” but instead “put the letter in Mr. McDonough’s employment file and never spoke a word of it to Mr. Bidwill until nearly five years later,” when the team searched McDonough’s “emails and files for potential content to include” in its statement, according to Mishkin’s decision.

This raises all sorts of questions. Why did the former father-in-law send it Fitzgerald? Why wasn’t Bidwill told? Why didn’t anyone follow up before making public comments about McDonough’s character without real knowledge of the situation?

This continues to be an ugly situation that hopefully will have some sort of conclusion soon.

Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.

 

9 star-studded PGA Tour pro and celebrity pairings at the 2024 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am

These pairs are going to be fun to watch.

The second signature event of the PGA Tour’s 2024 season is here as a loaded field of 80 pros has descended upon Pebble Beach Golf Links and Spyglass Hill for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on the Monterey Peninsula.

The amateurs in the field will play alongside their partners for the first two rounds — one at Pebble Beach, one at Spyglass Hill — before it’s just the pros at Pebble Beach over the weekend.

Among the world’s best in the field are Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Viktor Hovland, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Collin Morikawa.

Pebble Pro-Am: Picks to win, odds | Sleepers

As for the amateurs, here are nine star-studded pairings for the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.