Hall of Fame wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, who played his entire 17-year NFL career for the Arizona Cardinals, never officially announced his retirement from the NFL. After the 2020 season, he became a free agent and never signed another NFL contract. Fans never got to honor him or give him a final standing ovation knowing it would be the final time they would see him play.
In fact, he didn't even play in what could h ave been his final game because he was injured.
But fans can honor him and cheer him on this weekend at State Farm Stadium. He is being inducted into the Ring of Honor and is having his No. 11 retired at halftime of the Cardinals' game against the Denver Broncos.
He will have a speech, his name a number will be revealed in the rafters
and fans can shout "Larry, Larry" one more time.
Fitzgerald explained why he walked away the way he did after the 2020 season.
“I told you a long time ago — I'm a Fitzgerald, so there's some Irish in there a long, long way back. The Irish goodbye is kind of my thing," he joked at his press conference on Thursday. "If you ever see me at an event, say hello quick because I'm going to find that, 'hey, where's that bathroom at?' I'm going to sneak out to the car."
He had a more reasonable explanation.
"I left in 2020, and as you guys all remember, it was a very different time," he continued. "Playing in empty stadiums and not really having the same media availability and everything became just Zoom. I felt like my goodbye was on Zoom and it'd be great to be able to come out there on that field. I've been to a couple of games since at home, probably more on the road. So to be able to go in that stadium and feel that energy again; I'm just hoping when I go out there, we're up at half taking care of business and that the fans will be in a lot better mood.”
He always said that he wanted to have a retirement like Tim Duncan did from the NBA and San Antonio Spurs. He just walked away. There was no announcement, no press conference.
For fans, it left everyone hanging. We understood when he didn't re-sign in 2021 that his career was done. But it felt wrong never getting to give a hearty goodbye to arguably the greatest player in Cardinals history.
Now that he is a Hall of Famer, we have that chance. We get why he left the way he did. It was on-brand for him. But we finally get to have our goodbye.
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This article originally appeared on Cards Wire: Larry Fitzgerald explains why he didn't announce his NFL retirement
