Larry Fitzgerald’s bond with Kurt Warner helped craft legendary Cardinals career

Larry Fitzgerald never won the Super Bowl. He captured something bigger. He won the state of Arizona. Nobody here has ever enjoyed a higher approval rating. Not even Wyatt Earp.

He couldn’t have done it without Kurt Warner.

“We couldn’t be more different. People thought there was no way we’d ever be close,” Warner said. “Here’s this older Christian guy coming in, straightlaced, not going to joke around, standing at his locker and quoting scriptures … all that stuff was a part of me. But it wasn’t all of me. And we really connected. We really bonded. He became like a son and a brother. And when he came over to get to know my family, that’s when it really got special.”

Fitzgerald will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this weekend, a player who curated a near-perfect career. But he willingly admits to maturity issues early on. To wit: He once paid clubhouse attendants to have the showers running hot by the time the game had ended, so Fitzgerald could get in and out of the locker room as soon as possible, before the media gained entrance.

Warner arrived in Arizona in March 2005, one year after Fitzgerald was drafted. He arrived when the Cardinals and their hotshot wide receiver needed him most.

Despite a 13-year age difference, they would grow very close. Both were seeking greatness, and both wanted bigger and better things for a stagnant, moribund NFL franchise. Fitzgerald listened when Warner counseled him on the importance of relationships, on being charitable, how to represent himself, how to treat fans and media, and how to make others feel important. And Warner would listen when Fitzgerald insisted he was open on the football field even though he appeared to be covered, learning to throw the ball high in the air and away from the defender, trusting Fitzgerald’s hands and body control.

“The biggest thing to me is chasing excellence in everything you do,” Warner said. “That is always how I tried to project myself, and a lot of that stuff was already in Larry early on. But there were times when I called Larry out in front of his teammates, and I knew he hated it. He hated to be wrong. I called him out because I knew it would motivate him. It was also a way to say, ‘You’re not perfect.’ I needed those other guys to see that. There are times as a leader when you need to show people that you’ve made a mistake.”

Warner and Fitzgerald played starring roles on the team’s unlikely road to Super Bowl XLIII in February 2009. In four playoff games, Fitzgerald caught 30 passes for 546 yards and seven touchdowns. Statistically, no wide receiver has ever been better in a single postseason, although Jerry Rice and Cooper Kupp have come close. But I repeat: No one has ever been better on the biggest of stages.

Warner and Fitzgerald also teamed up on the most exciting play in Valley history, an explosive touchdown over the middle that gave the Cardinals the lead with 2:47 remaining in that Super Bowl. Nothing has ever compared to that feeling.

You can’t help but wonder how history might have changed had the Cardinals’ defense closed out the game and secured the victory.

“It’s one thing to turn an organization around and get close,” Warner said. “I’m probably not in the Hall of Fame without that Super Bowl (appearance). And Larry certainly didn’t get on the map like he should’ve until that moment.

“But if we could’ve finished that game, something would be different. It would’ve been the cherry on top of the sundae. We would’ve done something that people literally thought was impossible. It would’ve been an extra level on the myth and the story. It would’ve been the crowning jewel for both of us. We traveled as far as any group has ever traveled, and that would’ve sealed the journey. I think we fell just short of being epic.”

Warner and Fitzgerald settle for being part of a very exclusive club, the 387 men inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and gifted with a small slice of immortality. And they will take solace in their beloved status here in the Valley, for representing the very best of Arizona.

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