CANTON, Ohio – Larry Fitzgerald had been in the room with all the Pro Football Hall of Fame busts a few times before.
There have been trips when the Cardinals played in the Hall of Fame Game, there were visits when he made time for the induction ceremonies of Kurt Warner, Dwight Freeney, and Jared Allen. Fitzgerald had not yet been there – until Friday – as a member of the Hall of Fame himself.
He saw mentor Cris Carter's bust immediately as he entered the darkened room. He took a photo on his phone of Terrell Owens' bust. He admired the impressive job the Hall sculptor had done with players with longer hair, like Troy Polamalu and former teammate Edgerrin James – knowing that's what his bust will look like come August.
Fitzgerald took in the faces of the men with whom he has formed relationships. And he understood that now, he has a relationship with the almost 400 men who are honored forever in bronze.
"It hits you when you walk into that room," Fitzgerald said. "It's rarified air. It's like walking into a room at 10,000 feet, you know?"
The big moments for a new Hall of Famer come not on this weekend. Fitzgerald already had his Hall of Fame “door knock” from Randy Moss and was presented to the world as a Hall of Famer at NFL Honors. The actual induction ceremony comes in August, two days after Fitzgerald's former team plays the Carolina Panthers in this year's Hall of Fame Game to begin the NFL preseason.
Fitzgerald, who joined fellow Hall classmates Drew Brees, Luke Kuechly, and Roger Craig on this visit (Adam Vinatieri was not able to attend), was here for logistics. The quartet learned about how long their speeches should last, what would be happening induction week, and worked to make final tailoring touches on their gold jackets.
This trip had its own kind of special too, however, like when the group walked in the front door greeted by clapping of Hall employees and fans who were lucky enough to be visiting on this random Friday morning in April when four new Hall of Famers happened to be here.
"Pro Football Hall of Famer number 385, Larry Fitzgerald!" it was announced after his arrival, and Fitzgerald's wide smile told the tale.
The joy of football immortality remained intense.
BARBARA SMITH lives in Canton. She volunteers at the Hall of Fame, guiding visitors through her days. She loves football, and sometime in the last decade or so, she took a liking to Larry Fitzgerald.
So there she was Friday, wearing a Fitzgerald shirt that featured his face on the front and on the back, his iconic jersey No. 11 – with the top parts of the numerals covered with Fitz's "hair." In 2017, when Smith was on vacation in Florida, she happened to enter a Starbucks where Fitzgerald was there with his two oldest sons.
Smith got Fitzgerald to take a picture with him. She made sure to show him on Friday.
"When we took the picture, he saw my Hall of Fame (shirt) and said, 'I'm going to need your help getting in there,'" Smith said. "I told him, 'I don't think so, Larry.'"
Smith was overjoyed to be able to shake Fitzgerald's hand again. "I just admire him," she said. The wait for him to get into the Hall has seemed like forever, she added. She admitted she went to the Cardinals' game in Cleveland in 2021 hoping to see Fitzgerald, except that was Fitz's first year out of the game.
"He never really announced his retirement, did he?" Smith asked.
No. No, he did not.
Not that it matters now. He's in the Hall, his career more than five years ended. That was the whole point of this trip: the future of being forever, maybe becoming one of the greats painted on one of the Hall of Fame walls.
Fitzgerald found one of those walls, working to guess who each player was and admittedly struggling as the legends came from further back. He had no problem getting Walter Payton, Deacon Jones, and Jim Brown; Sammy Baugh and Don Hutson? Those were much harder. And one of the reasons he later brought out Brees – in front of a small audience – to test his classmate on the same wall.
THE DAY before lunch was packed as the four chosen ones moved from station to station to fulfill what needed to be done. All sat in the Gold Jacket Lounge as they learned about induction night logistics and Hall historian Joe Horrigan implored to them to please keep their induction speech between 8 and 10 minutes. That gave Fitzgerald a chance to needle Brees about breaking the record for the longest speech, by 2018 inductee Ray Lewis.
(Lewis, for clarity's sake, went about 33 minutes, and there have been a number of guys who went even longer.)
Fitzgerald did a quick breakout to help load some canned goods on to a bus for the "Harvest for Hunger" food drive, lifting some boxes on to the bus himself. As the morning rolled by, Fitzgerald took a handful of selfies with fortunate fans. He did a short "press conference" with local Ohio media in a room with glass doors – doors that didn't prevent photos from fans walking by outside.
During one of his answers, one could hear from the hallway: "There's Larry Fitzgerald!"
The response from another onlooker: "The actual guy?"
FITZGERALD wandered by some plaques in a hallway commemorating Canton-worthy NFL athletic trainers and equipment men, honors that just began to be awarded in the last few years. In addition to noting some of the Vikings employees he worked under when he was a ballboy with Minnesota, Fitzgerald also made sure to take a photo of the name of long-time Cardinals trainer John Omohundro, who was part of the first Hall class.
There was a visit to the Hall's archives to shoot a sitdown interview with Hall staff, and then an important moment: his unboxing of his gold jacket.
The tiny room had about 10 people watching in utter silence as Fitzgerald slowly pulled the box open.
"This is awesome," Fitzgerald said, breaking the quiet.
"This is a dream come true," he said a minute later. "To be able to touch it, feel it, look at it, it's amazing."
Fitzgerald put on the jacket, but not for the cameras, only to see the current fit (excellent) and the plan (the legend insisted it will have to be tailored again enshrinement week, because he plans on getting into playing shape for his big night.)
SILVER CLEATS? Silver cleats.
Fitzgerald wore the special shoes for "Sunday Night Football" in 2009, when the eventual NFC West-winning Cardinals beat the Giants in New York. With Fitzgerald a Nike athlete, the brand made the suggestion. They weren't legal to wear. Fitz did it anyway. When the fine letter came from the NFL, he called up former player Troy Vincent, then in charge of player fines, to try and talk his way out of it.
It worked.
Fitzgerald enjoyed telling the anecdote given that those cleats are part of Fitzgerald's individual exhibit that will live in Canton, filled with memorabilia each class member deemed worthy.
The two-day visit ended with a private unveiling on Friday evening of the exhibits and a public unveiling on Saturday morning.
Among the Fitzgerald items: a game-worn jersey from his rookie season when he caught two touchdowns in Seattle; the draft card the Cardinals turned in in New York when he was picked in the 2004 draft; former Steelers coach Bill Cowher's draft evaluation of Fitzgerald for the draft; pink cleats he wore in a game to honor his mother, who died of breast cancer; his Pro Bowl jersey from 2009 when he caught two TD passes from Brees; and, of course, the silver cleats.
"I think I have a pretty solid grasp of history and how long the league has gone on, more than 100 years, and how few people have been enshrined here," Fitzgerald said. "It's mind-boggling and makes you feel a sense of accomplishment."
The big night is still more than four months away. But the season of Fitz-Gets-Hall-Call added another chapter on this trip.
"It's been a cool experience," Fitzgerald said.
