Larry Fitzgerald said he’d never been in the zone quite like that 2008 playoff run

The Arizona Cardinals’ 2008 playoff run was the crown jewel of Larry Fitzgerald’s Hall of Fame career, a legendary run unlike anything else accomplished in the history of the NFL.

Fitzgerald joined Arizona Sports’ Wolf & Luke on Thursday, ahead of his Pro Football Hall of Fame induction next week, and he tried to explain the zone he was in during Arizona’s march to the Super Bowl.

“I was definitely in the zone,” Fitzgerald said. “It was not being in it for games or days or a week or so, but I don’t know, I’ve never been in it for an entire month. That’s kind of really what I felt like. The game just was very slow to me. I never experienced it again like that. There were times and moments where I felt it, but not continuously. So it was a really awesome feeling. It was great to be a part of it.”

Fitzgerald is still the only player of the Super Bowl era with 100-plus receiving yards and a touchdown catch in four straight playoff games.

The Cardinals entered the playoffs as a 9-7 division winner without high expectations to make the Super Bowl from the outside.

Fitzgerald saw to that, and the community was enthralled by his heroics.

Fitzgerald described what it was like leaving State Farm Stadium (then-called University of Phoenix Stadium) after the NFC Championship Game win against the Philadelphia Eagles. While driving up the ramp, thousands of fans were waiting, waving flags, tapping on his car and saying thank you.

“I got home that night and on my door, I had like baked cakes and flowers and cards and posters and all type of stuff,” Fitzgerald said. “The community really just turned up. Literally, there was like 30 things on my doorstep when I got home. And then throughout the course of the week, people were giving me things for Tampa, like ‘Here, you need some slippers.’

“People were so into it. It was amazing. I got the cards, the handwritten notes from adults and kids. I’ll be at a restaurant and people will send notes over and put them on my car, in the windshield wipers. It was a cool, cool time.”

The greatest individual postseason run ever?

10 years ago, @LarryFitzgerald went full-on Larry Legend in the playoffs. @AZCardinals #10yearchallenge pic.twitter.com/vQxICG8SG7

— NFL Legacy (@NFLLegacy) January 15, 2019

Asked which play he would vote for as the greatest of his career, Fitzgerald pointed to the 64-yard catch-and-run during the Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers that put the Cardinals ahead with less than three minutes to go.

As far as any regrets in his career, Fitzgerald said he wished his star receiver running mate Anquan Boldin was 100% during that playoff run and did not have to play through a hamstring injury he suffered in the wild card round against the Atlanta Falcons.

“He was laboring a little bit, and if we have 100% Anquan, oh man, I think the run looks a lot different,” Fitzgerald said.

“When I go back and I look, there are things I wish I may have prioritized more, that I would have understood how fleeting these experiences were, because you guys talked about the 2008 run, when I was in it, I was like ‘I’m gonna be back here again,'” he added. “I’m coming back here. I don’t think you really understand how rarefied that is.”

Fitzgerald will be enshrined as a first-ballot Hall of Famer in Canton on Aug. 8 alongside Drew Brees, Luke Kuechly, Adam Vinatieri and Roger Craig.

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