Scoggins: Snapshots from Larry Fitzgerald Jr.’s journey from Holy Angels to Hall of Fame

The cornerback lined up across the line of scrimmage from Larry Fitzgerald Jr. knew he was overmatched. He also recognized greatness. Thus, before the ball was snapped, he asked Fitzgerald if he could get his autograph after the game.

That unusual request came when Fitzgerald was a star receiver at Holy Angels. Hopefully that kid got and kept the autograph.

The imposing figure who struck fear — and awe — inside him that night is headed to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

As someone who has known and chronicled Fitzgerald’s career since high school, this ultimate honor comes as no surprise. Fitzgerald approached his job with Hall of Fame intentionality. He also used his platform as a professional athlete as an avenue to do good deeds.

I have interviewed and spent time with Fitzgerald in different settings over the past quarter century. Here are snapshots that help illustrate why he is a first ballot Hall of Famer who became widely respected inside NFL circles:

Holy Angels played host to Prior Lake on a Friday night. Six Vikings players arrived to watch Fitzgerald, who served as a Vikings ballboy in training camp for years.

The Vikings’ contingent included Cris Carter, Robert Tate and Robert Griffith.

His stat line: 10 catches for 134 yards and three touchdowns in a victory.

Fitzgerald sat in a sports bar near the University of Pittsburgh campus. As he picked at a pile of french fries, a city bus rolled by the window.

A picture of Fitzgerald’s spectacular touchdown catch in Pitt’s bowl game against Oregon State the previous season covered the side of the bus.

Running at full speed, Fitzgerald left his feet at the 5-yard line, stretched his body parallel to the ground and hauled in the ball with his fingertips for a 40-yard touchdown.

I gushed about it. Fitzgerald shrugged.

Fitzgerald nixed requests by Pitt coaches to hang a picture of the catch outside their offices. He didn’t want to be singled out.

Fitzgerald invited me to attend a workout that he regularly hosted for NFL players at the Gophers football facility. He didn’t disclose which players would be in attendance.

Two dozen players — mostly wide receivers, defensive backs and quarterbacks — participated in conditioning drills led by Fitzgerald’s personal trainer Bill Welle, followed by position-specific work.

Also there, Jerry Rice.

Fitzgerald had hundreds of questions he wanted to ask Rice about how he became the greatest receiver of all time. A phone call wouldn’t suffice. Fitzgerald invited Rice to visit his home and teach him.

When Fitzgerald learned that Rice ate grapes every morning for breakfast, he incorporated grapes into his diet, too.

Carter and Michael Irvin also made visits to Fitzgerald’s workouts. Those sessions became popular with prominent players around the NFL who came to Minneapolis to train at an elite level.

Even as Fitzgerald became a perennial Pro Bowl player on a Hall of Fame trajectory, he worked like an unproven rookie in the offseason.

Rice, who was known for his intense workouts as a player, said after taking part in Fitzgerald’s session: “That was crazy, man.”

I sat in a golf cart with Fitzgerald at a charity event. He had allowed me to hang with him for the round. Our conversation shifted to the fascination with speed at the wide receiver position.

“Name me your top five receivers of all time,” he said.

My quick answer: Rice, Randy Moss, Carter, Terrell Owens and Fitzgerald.

“There’s only one guy in there that’s sub-4.3 [seconds in the 40-yard dash],” he said.

The one was Moss, not Fitzgerald, who was never viewed as a speedy receiver.

“Winning is all about separation at the top of your breaks,” Fitzgerald continued. “Very rarely is the defense just going to let you run right by them. If you’re a defensive back, that’s one thing that will get you fired quick.”

“If you [have] those things,” he says, “you’ll play for a while.”

The Arizona Cardinals visited the Twin Cities for joint practices ahead of a preseason game. Fitzgerald, who retired after the 2020 season, watched a practice from the sideline.

In one drill, Vikings star Justin Jefferson contorted his body between two Cardinals defenders to snag a catch that had a ridiculously high degree of difficulty. I wandered over to Fitzgerald to discuss the art of making difficult catches, namely having “great hands.”

“It’s a skill that’s developed over time,” he said.

Fitzgerald used to stick his hands in a bucket of rice and do different movements to strengthen his fingers and forearms.

September 2021

I learned that Fitzgerald bought 60 new helmets for the Phelps Falcons youth football program in Minneapolis. I texted him for confirmation.

“I will not deny nor confirm those allegations,” he replied, jokingly.

Typical Fitzgerald. He didn’t want publicity.

As sensational as he was as a receiver, his impact away from the field was more far-reaching and meaningful.

He made mission trips with the Starkey Hearing Foundation to fit children with hearing aids in India, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Malaysia, the Philippines, Nepal and Uganda. Former President Bill Clinton asked Starkey founder Bill Austin to arrange for Fitzgerald to join their delegation on the Uganda trip.

“I called Larry and said, ‘You’ve got a presidential request,’ ” Austin said.

Fitzgerald participated in a handful of USO tours to visit soldiers overseas. He helped dig wells and build irrigation systems in drought-stricken Ethiopia. He served as league spokesman for the NFL’s breast cancer awareness initiatives. One season he paid for two breast cancer survivors to accompany him to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii and invited them to his rented house for dinner the night before the game.

He refurbished basketball courts at Martin Luther King Park in Minneapolis, paid for underprivileged kids to attend summer football camps and helped north Minneapolis tornado victims.

“He’s making a difference,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told me in 2012. “Not just with breast cancer but with a variety of other charities, because that’s the kind of guy he is.”

Larry Fitzgerald Jr. was named the 2016 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year, considered the league’s most prestigious honor.

“It’s not about doing things for fanfare or attention,” he said. “If I see a need, no matter what it is — large or small — if I can be helpful, I’m going to do it.”