Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald (right) and quarterback Kurt Warner during Warner's last NFL game, a playoff loss in New Orleans in January, 2010.

CANTON, Ohio -- There's been much talk of late about current NFL players attending the Hall of Fame induction ceremony of a friend -- Antonio Gates and Philip Rivers, in this case -- but the Cardinals will have one themselves.

Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald will stay behind after Thursday's Hall of Fame game to be there when his former quarterback and his current friend Kurt Warner goes in to the Hall.

Among the Cardinals contingent attending will be team president Michael Bidwill and another of Warner's former teammates, current Cardinals scout Adrian Wilson.

Warner and Fitzgerald were excellent together on the field -- 39 of Fitzgerald's 104 career touchdowns came from Warner, the most of any quarterback -- but they also grew close off the field. 

"Ultimately, I think we became friends because although different, we appreciated the differences each other had," Warner said. "We could sit down and talk about anything."

Fitzgerald said he has been "blessed" to know Warner.

"I don't mean just to have him, but to have him in the time I had him," Fitzgerald said. "It was a Godsend. I needed him not just from a professional standpoint but from a personal standpoint. He really taught me how to be a professional, how to conduct myself as a man. He was – he is – a special person. I am thankful that I was able to have him in my life at 21 years old."