Larry Fitzgerald gets his forever threads in touching gold jacket dinner, moves closer to Hall of Fame immortalization

CANTON, Ohio — Wow.

That’s the best way to describe Friday night’s gold jacket dinner where Arizona Cardinals great Larry Fitzgerald Jr. and the rest of the 2026 induction class officially got their forever threads.

You could feel the magnitude of the night filling up the room as supporters, family members, teammates, coaches and staff members all filed in.

Seeing David Johnson, Adrian Wilson, Kelvin Beachum and others all rocking the No. 11 pins and looking almost like proud parents with smiles from ear to ear talking about their friend and teammate was just the start.

Then came the returning Hall of Fame members. With the inclusion of the 2026 class, there was 125 HOFers in attendance. A new record for the gold jacket dinner.

Legend after legend, Joe Montana, Jerry Rice, Edgerrin James, Andre Johnson, Aeneas Williams, Dwight Freeny, Emmitt Smith and the rest of the returning members lined the row for Fitzgerald, Roger Craig, Adam Vinatieri, Drew Brees and Luke Kuechly to traverse.

And what a moment it was, with each new member getting their chance to walk through history and thank each and every one along the way.

For Fitzgerald, that included his former quarterback Kurt Warner.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Arizona Sports (@arizsports)

The “Larry! Larry!” chants from Cardinals fans in attendance echoed as Fitz made his way through the gauntlet of greats just added to the aura of it all. If you didn’t have goosebumps watching Mr. Cardinal take those steps closer to immortalization, you might need to get checked out.

That, however, was nowhere close to the crescendo of the evening.

No, that was put in motion when Rich Eisen uttered the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, Larry Fitzgerald is a Hall of Famer” as Fitzgerald’s mentor Cris Carter adorned his former Minnesota Vikings ballboy with the gold jacket.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Arizona Sports (@arizsports)

Absolute chills watching the whole thing play out live.

From a football standpoint, this is the ultimate end goal. For Fitzgerald and the rest of the class — especially a guy like Roger Craig who should have been in a long, long time ago — they’re that much closer to forever being engrained in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

It was truly a moment I don’t think anyone in attendance will ever forget. If you love football, it’s a bucket list item (as is the rest of the HOF week).

Throughout the dinner, I found myself having flashbacks of hearing about all those legends who were right in front of me. It was like falling in love with the sport all over again, while also sending me back to conversations with my grandma about her favorite players like Craig, and of course, Fitzgerald.

It’s almost hard to put into words the feeling of it all.

The best part? The celebration is far from over, with induction speeches and bust reveals putting an exclamation point on the week of honoring the league’s best to ever do it.

And if you happened to run out of tissues during Friday’s ceremony, make sure you grab another box before the speeches start rolling on Saturday.

We’re all in for something seriously special.

Related

Carson Beck’s debut reignited intrigue surrounding Arizona CardinalsHall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald a true GOAT amongst GOATsESPN’s Bill Barnwell tabs Cardinals’ Budda Baker as ‘on the cusp’ of a Hall of Fame playerCarson Beck among Cardinals’ big winners from Hall of Fame gameCardinals’ Carson Beck aces 1st big NFL test with Hall of Fame game showingMike LaFleur surprised by brother, Packers coach Matt LaFleur ahead of Hall of Fame game