The Arizona Cardinals wide receiver still has strong ties to his family. (Instagram)
Larry Fitzgerald has been around sports his entire life.
The Arizona Cardinals wide receiver grew up in Minnesota and spent most of his childhood tagging along behind his father, one of the most prominent sports reporters in the entire Twin Cities area.
In fact, while he was growing up Fitzgerald worked as a ball boy for the Minnesota Vikings and was frequently spotted in the outfield of Twins games while his dad set up in the press box. He and his brother regularly shagged balls with professional baseball players.
It was an idyllic kind of childhood and one that has Fitzgerald still referring to Minnesota as his home. Read on to learn more about Fitzgerald’s life before the NFL and how the football star found the ability to overcome tragedy by finding support with his family:
1. Fitzgerald’s Father Is a Prominent Sports Personality in Minnesota
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Fitzgerald grew up around sports while he was a child, thanks, in large, part to his father’s career as a sportswriter in the Minnesota area. Fitzgerald Sr. has worked in print and radio for over three decades, serving as the sports editor and columnist for the Minnesota Spokesman-Reocrder. His current column, the Fitz Beat, appears weekly in the Spokesman-Recorder.
Fitzgerald’s sportswriting career began at Indiana State University where he majored in radio-TV communications and played offensive tackle from 1975-1977.
When Larry Jr. played in the Super Bowl in 2009 his father, was of course, there. Only in a slightly less-than-usual capacity. He was working. Fitzgerald Sr. covered more than 20 Super Bowls before the Cardinals and he was not about to change that simply because his son was playing. He was the first-ever father to report on the game while his son was playing.
2. His Mother, Carol, Passed Away From Breast Cancer in 2003
Fitzgerald’s mother, Carol, was just 47 years old when she passed away from breast cancer. (Twitter)
Fitzgerald first made it into the national spotlight during his college years and a prolific career at Pittsburgh, but there is one moment during those years that will always stick with the wideout.
April 9. His father called. There was a ticket waiting for him to fly home to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Fitzgerald’s father didn’t tell him why he needed to come home, but the then-college standout knew why. He went to practice anyway.
“It was probably the toughest practice I had to go to,” Fitzgerald told ESPN. “Football wasn’t important that day.”
That night, Fitzgerald flew home and found his mother, Carol, in a cancer-induced coma. She had been battling the disease for seven and a half years before it spread the breast cancer spread to her lungs and brains. She passed away at the age of 47. Fitzgerald described the emotion of that day, saying:
If somebody hasn’t lost a parent you can’t understand what it’s like. Some days I call my mom’s voicemail just to hear her voice. Some days are harder than others like one- and two-month anniversaries, the scars are still healing. It’s constant reminder to me that life isn’t guaranteed to anybody.
Carol was an enormous figure in her young son’s life. She not only started the African-American AIDS Task Force in Minneapolis, sparking Fitzgerald’s own charitable efforts, but she was his biggest fan on the football field and helped him focus on both sports and academics.
However, at the time of her death, the two were facing challenges in their relationship after, what Fitzgerald Sr. called, “a little falling-about” about one of his girlfriends.
Fitzgerald and his family hold an annual event in his mother’s honor each year, Carol’s Night, in Minneapolis with all proceeds going towards urban education related to HIV/AIDS as well as breast cancer research.
3. Fitzgerald Donated $5,000 for Every Touchdown He Scored in October This Season to Honor His Mother
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As a league, the NFL honors breast cancer survivors and shines a light on the impacts of the disease every October, but the month-long focus means much more to those players who were personally impacted by the disease; including Fitzgerald.
This season, the Cardinals star took things one step further.
In addition to custom-made pink cleats with his mother’s name inscribed on the side, Fitzgerald also donated .25 cents for every new follower he got on Facebook or Twitter during the course of the month. He also donated $5,000 for every touchdown and another $1,000 for every reception he caught.
In Week 6 alone, Fitzgerald finished with eight receptions.
4. His Younger Brother, Marcus, Was Played College Football at Marshall
The Fitzgerald brother were incredibly close while they were growing up and are still each other’s biggest fans. (Twitter)
The Fitzgerald family football games were also passed on to Larry’s younger brother Marcus, who was a standout wide receiver in four years at Marshall. Over the course of his career he hauled in 70 passes for 825 yards and two touchdowns.
However, despite some strong numbers, the younger Fitzgerald WR was almost always in the shadow of his older brother. Marcus wasn’t invited to the 2008 NFL combine and he wasn’t drafted. In fact, he wasn’t even given his first NFL tryout until his brother stepped in to vouch for his talent. Still, in 2009, Marcus made moves of his own, approaching then-Vikings coach Brad Childress at a fundraiser and secured his own invitation to Minnesota rookie camp. Marcus discussed his road with TwinCites, saying:
I’ve had some adversity along the way. But I feel this is my time. What an opportunity, to play in my back yard, for the Vikings. The door has been opened, and now it’s time for me to kick it through.
Marcus’ try-out with the Vikings did not amount to much and since then, the younger Fitzgerald has become one of his brother’s biggest fans, focusing more on that game than his own. That has, however, also lead to a few social media controversies.
Marcus isn’t shy about sharing his opinions on the internet and, on more than one occasion, he’s taken to Twitter to post his frustrations.
5. Fitzgerald Has One Son, Devin, With His Ex-Girlfriend
Fitzgerald, here with his son, brother and nephew, has tried to keep Devin out of the spotlight as much as possible. (Twitter)
Although he does his best to keep his son, Devin, out of the spotlight, Fitzgerald has been forced to discuss some less-than-positive family moments as his own on-field persona has grown.
Fitzgerald and his son’s mother, Angela Nazario, were embroiled in a legal battle just a year before the Arizona Cardinals made their 2009 appearance in the Super Bowl. Nazario took legal action to establish paternity and then accused the wideout of domestic violence. She received an order of protection against him.
“She’s trying to get a lot of money,” Fitzgerald’s father told The New York Times at the time. At the time, the story didn’t receive much media attention at all. In fact, it was TMZ that first published details of the order.