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Cook: Arizona Cardinals, Fitzgerald are hoping to take flight soon
Sunday, April 02, 2006
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's easy to laugh at the Arizona Cardinals, pro football's biggest joke, especially now that Marvin Lewis, Carson Palmer and notorious Terrible Towel desecrator Chad Johnson have resurrected the Cincinnati Bengals. The Cardinals make the Pirates look like the Yankees. They make Duquesne look like Duke. Look up awful in the dictionary and you'll find the Cardinals' logo. They have had one winning season since 1984. They have had one playoff victory since 1947. They have made the playoffs one time since moving to Phoenix from St. Louis in 1988.
Funny thing, though.
It's not so easy to laugh at the Cardinals when Larry Fitzgerald is on the telephone.
"I'm tired of it, sick of it," he was saying the other day.
The losing.
The jokes.
The negativity.
"It's got to stop," Fitzgerald said. "The fans here are so used to losing. That has to change. We've got to find a way to give them a winner."
You can't possibly be surprised Fitzgerald is taking it personally and taking it upon himself to make things right. You know him from his time at Pitt, where, in just two seasons, he became the school's greatest receiver. You know he's a winning player, a better person, the type of guy around whom any team would love to build.
The Cardinals have made a lot of bad decisions over the years, but they made a great one when they took Fitzgerald with the third pick of the 2004 NFL draft. As a rookie, he had 58 catches for 780 yards and eight touchdowns. Last season, he had an NFL-high 103 catches for 1,409 yards and 10 touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl.
That's some production for a guy who won't turn 23 until Aug. 31.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Fitzgerald wasn't even old enough to buy champagne when the Cardinals signed him to a six-year contract that could be worth $60 million and includes $20 million in guaranteed money.
But of all Fitzgerald's great catches, he might have made his best one last month. He was big in the recruitment of free-agent running back Edgerrin James, initiating conversations with him after the season to measure his interest and learning, much to his delight, that James was intrigued by the Cardinals. Fitzgerald reported back to coach Dennis Green and helped set up James' visit to Phoenix. He was one of James' hosts, showing him the town, the team's training facility, its brand-new stadium, which the Steelers will help to open in an exhibition game Aug. 12, even taking him to a Suns' game.
It would be crazy to suggest Fitzgerald was the biggest reason James signed with the Cardinals March 12. That would be the four-year, $30-million contract, which included a guaranteed $11.5 million in bonuses. But Fitzgerald's sales job didn't hurt. He convinced James he could push the Cardinals over the top.
"Everyone knows what he brings to the table," Fitzgerald said. "A winning presence. Veteran leadership. The ability to rush for 1,400 or 1,500 yards."
This isn't like NFL all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith signing with the Cardinals in 2003. He was at the end of the line with little left. James ran for 1,506 yards for the Indianapolis Colts last season, his fifth 1,000-yard season in seven years.
The thinking in Arizona -- Fitzgerald's, anyway -- is that James will help in a number of ways. He'll lift a running game that was the NFL's worst last season and hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since 1998. He'll slow the pass rush on quarterback Kurt Warner, who, though he'll be 35 next season, still can make all of the throws if he has time. He'll draw some of the attention from opposing safeties that used to go to Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, another excellent young wide receiver.
It's not much of a stretch to think Fitzgerald could become the NFL's best receiver if all of that happens. You know he won't stop working toward that. He has been studying his craft since he was a kid, chasing after his sports-journalist father, Larry Sr., to Green's training camps with the Minnesota Vikings. At Pitt -- "still the best two years of my life," Fitzgerald said -- he took advantage of being in the same practice facility with the Steelers to talk the game with Hines Ward, Plaxico Burress and Antwaan Randle El. Even at the Pro Bowl, he made it a point to hang out with veteran receivers Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt.
"I'm going to do everything I can to keep getting better," Fitzgerald said. "I want to be a perennial Pro Bowl receiver like Hines Ward."
That's No. 2 on Fitzgerald's list of goals.
You might guess No. 1.
Actually, it's as much of a prediction as a goal.
"There's no doubt I'll be seeing you one day in the Super Bowl," Fitzgerald said. "Notice I said 'in' the Super Bowl, not 'at' the Super Bowl."
Funny thing, indeed, about that part of the telephone call.
Neither party laughed when Fitzgerald said it.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's easy to laugh at the Arizona Cardinals, pro football's biggest joke, especially now that Marvin Lewis, Carson Palmer and notorious Terrible Towel desecrator Chad Johnson have resurrected the Cincinnati Bengals. The Cardinals make the Pirates look like the Yankees. They make Duquesne look like Duke. Look up awful in the dictionary and you'll find the Cardinals' logo. They have had one winning season since 1984. They have had one playoff victory since 1947. They have made the playoffs one time since moving to Phoenix from St. Louis in 1988.
Funny thing, though.
It's not so easy to laugh at the Cardinals when Larry Fitzgerald is on the telephone.
"I'm tired of it, sick of it," he was saying the other day.
The losing.
The jokes.
The negativity.
"It's got to stop," Fitzgerald said. "The fans here are so used to losing. That has to change. We've got to find a way to give them a winner."
You can't possibly be surprised Fitzgerald is taking it personally and taking it upon himself to make things right. You know him from his time at Pitt, where, in just two seasons, he became the school's greatest receiver. You know he's a winning player, a better person, the type of guy around whom any team would love to build.
The Cardinals have made a lot of bad decisions over the years, but they made a great one when they took Fitzgerald with the third pick of the 2004 NFL draft. As a rookie, he had 58 catches for 780 yards and eight touchdowns. Last season, he had an NFL-high 103 catches for 1,409 yards and 10 touchdowns and made the Pro Bowl.
That's some production for a guy who won't turn 23 until Aug. 31.
It's amazing, isn't it?
Fitzgerald wasn't even old enough to buy champagne when the Cardinals signed him to a six-year contract that could be worth $60 million and includes $20 million in guaranteed money.
But of all Fitzgerald's great catches, he might have made his best one last month. He was big in the recruitment of free-agent running back Edgerrin James, initiating conversations with him after the season to measure his interest and learning, much to his delight, that James was intrigued by the Cardinals. Fitzgerald reported back to coach Dennis Green and helped set up James' visit to Phoenix. He was one of James' hosts, showing him the town, the team's training facility, its brand-new stadium, which the Steelers will help to open in an exhibition game Aug. 12, even taking him to a Suns' game.
It would be crazy to suggest Fitzgerald was the biggest reason James signed with the Cardinals March 12. That would be the four-year, $30-million contract, which included a guaranteed $11.5 million in bonuses. But Fitzgerald's sales job didn't hurt. He convinced James he could push the Cardinals over the top.
"Everyone knows what he brings to the table," Fitzgerald said. "A winning presence. Veteran leadership. The ability to rush for 1,400 or 1,500 yards."
This isn't like NFL all-time rushing leader Emmitt Smith signing with the Cardinals in 2003. He was at the end of the line with little left. James ran for 1,506 yards for the Indianapolis Colts last season, his fifth 1,000-yard season in seven years.
The thinking in Arizona -- Fitzgerald's, anyway -- is that James will help in a number of ways. He'll lift a running game that was the NFL's worst last season and hasn't had a 1,000-yard rusher since 1998. He'll slow the pass rush on quarterback Kurt Warner, who, though he'll be 35 next season, still can make all of the throws if he has time. He'll draw some of the attention from opposing safeties that used to go to Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, another excellent young wide receiver.
It's not much of a stretch to think Fitzgerald could become the NFL's best receiver if all of that happens. You know he won't stop working toward that. He has been studying his craft since he was a kid, chasing after his sports-journalist father, Larry Sr., to Green's training camps with the Minnesota Vikings. At Pitt -- "still the best two years of my life," Fitzgerald said -- he took advantage of being in the same practice facility with the Steelers to talk the game with Hines Ward, Plaxico Burress and Antwaan Randle El. Even at the Pro Bowl, he made it a point to hang out with veteran receivers Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt.
"I'm going to do everything I can to keep getting better," Fitzgerald said. "I want to be a perennial Pro Bowl receiver like Hines Ward."
That's No. 2 on Fitzgerald's list of goals.
You might guess No. 1.
Actually, it's as much of a prediction as a goal.
"There's no doubt I'll be seeing you one day in the Super Bowl," Fitzgerald said. "Notice I said 'in' the Super Bowl, not 'at' the Super Bowl."
Funny thing, indeed, about that part of the telephone call.
Neither party laughed when Fitzgerald said it.
Man, it's hard being a Cards AND Pirates fan!
