Larry Fitzgerald bumps into cousin serving in Kuwait

By PAUL WALSH, Star Tribune

Last update: March 6, 2009 - 10:36 AM

Minneapolis native and Arizona Cardinals star receiver Larry Fitzgerald had an impromptu mini-family reunion while on a USO tour this week in the Persian Gulf war zone with Viking Jared Allen and two other NFL players.

In a dispatch by the NFL on Thursday, Day 2 of the tour, Fitzgerald met a cousin who is a defense contractor stationed at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait.

Emelda Hadley, a cousin on Larry's maternal side, said they had not seen each other in several years and she remembers Fitzgerald as "the boy who would run around and get in trouble."

Fitzgerald and Hadley shared a long conversation, then parted by promising to see each other at the next family reunion in July.

Otherwise, the day was filled with hugs and handshakes with the troops, hospital visits, autographs and a collective struggle with adjusting to the eight-hour time difference from Eastern Standard Time back in the States.

Camp Arifjan is the largest military base in the Middle East and is a major staging point for all troops and supplies going into Iraq as well as many supplies going into Afghanistan.

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482

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