Larry Fitzgerald never really wanted to talk about his blocking.
But his tackling? Now that was a point of pride.
"I have more tackles than drops, man. I love to tackle," Fitzgerald said with a smile.
It has been a long-held belief that Fitzgerald's drops in his career (35, although a subjective stat) were fewer than his tackles in his career (41, and man that means a lot of turnovers he had to help with. Also, really would have been nice if James Harrison had been No. 42.)
Fitzgerald's most memorable tackles came off the field, however. The man made tackling a frequent greeting. To teammates. To coaches. To media members.
It was as much his calling card as a one-handed snag during a key drive of a game.
"When I signed in free agency I was the big offensive lineman signing," former Cardinal Justin Pugh said. "I remember walking into the locker room from the weight room and he grabs me, takes me to the ground. He does it to everybody. And he's testing you – how are you going to respond? I actually think it is his way of getting to know you. When else are you getting tackled in corporate America?"
Most of the time, the tackles came on the field. Assistant coaches. Friends from other teams. Former color analyst Ron Wolfley was taken down multiple times; once on stage at a charity luncheon, once in front of a huge training camp crowd at State Farm Stadium. Kurt Warner went down not only during his playing days, but once during a national TV pregame sideline hit as Fitzgerald veered off from his warmups.
Once, Fitzgerald got his one-time offensive coordinator Todd Haley when Haley was doing the same job for the Steelers during a game in Pittsburgh. He tried to get offensive coordinator Harold Goodwin during a practice at the Greenbrier in West Virginia a few days later – only to have Goodwin reverse it into a bear hug on Fitz.
"It was one of my favorite pastimes," Fitzgerald said. "I can honestly say I never hurt anybody. Nobody was ever hurt by my tackles, you know. It wasn't like a physical tackle. It was like, 'I got you.' I hog tie your legs, and then you would kind of just wobble a little bit, and then you would just kind of fall real gracefully. So I never hurt anybody, but I had a lot of joy. I'm a practical joker. I like to have a good time in life, man. It's too short to not enjoy it."
Once, Pugh said, Fitzgerald got Pugh's young nephew. "Everyone is eligible."
The gentle takedowns were quintessential Fitz.
"You weren't going to get hurt," Pugh said. "It was like he actually thought about the liability and health perspective, which is actually the most Larry Fitzgerald thing of all time.
"It's something that was so unique. I always say, if you take away everything Larry did on the field, he'd be exactly where he is today because of who he is off the field. He's the best."
