Cardinals’ Larry Fitzgerald shares life message with Arizona Diamondbacks

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald is known for his play on the football field and on Tuesday shared his wisdom with another Valley team, the Arizona Diamondbacks.

With Opening Day just two days away, and following a gruesome injury to outfielder Steven Souza Jr. on Monday, the timing couldn’t have been better.

“He’s extremely gifted with understanding how he wants to get his message across and articulate. It was just a really, really good half hour for this team to sit down, ask him questions and hear his message,” Torey Lovullo said of Fitzgerald’s talk.

The living legend @LarryFitzgerald stopped by the #Dbacks clubhouse to share some of his wisdom. Thank you, Fitz! #RattleOn pic.twitter.com/5csdH5tSgQ

— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) March 26, 2019

Tuesday’s meeting wasn’t just on a whim, however.

The Lovullo-Fitzgerald connection has been in the works for years.

“The thing that impressed me most about him is that the first time I met him was the offseason after ’17, and I was super excited to meet him, one of the all-time great NFL receivers standing right in front of me and all he wanted to talk about was Archie Bradley’s triple in the Wild Card game,” Lovullo said about first meeting the wide receiver.

From that moment, Lovullo knew what he was getting from Fitz.

“[Fitzgerald] knew every detail and I’m like ‘this guy is awesome because he just paid attention to exactly what was going on,'” Lovullo added of Fitzgerald.

“He wanted to know the whole process, and that told me why he was great. I uncovered the entire thing from start to finish with him and he was really into what was going on. He’s a different breed because he cares about the little things.”

👏🙏 Great honor to hear this great human being that play the game at such a high level, that’s what makes good people great athletes @larryfitzgerald #fogopower#eldelapica @azcardinals @dbacks @losdbacks pic.twitter.com/EFI5ze5XYv

— eduardo jose escobar (@escobarmaracay) March 26, 2019

Taking what he heard into account, Lovullo knew he needed to have Fitzgerald share his life knowledge with the rest of the D-backs organization.

“In my interactions with Larry over the past several months I felt like he would be a great message of what it takes to be a good teammate, preparation, following the process and I’ve been after him to come in … and just deliver the message he felt would relate to what we’re doing here and I told him some of things that were happening here and he nailed it, he did a great job of it,” Lovullo said.

“I think just sitting down and hearing some of the questions that were asked, it was clear that these guys realized that we have one of the best NFL players sitting right here in town and we want to take advantage of that. I want to certainly take advantage of that.”

In addition to meeting with the D-backs, Fitzgerald also made an appearance at the NFL Owner’s Meetings in Phoenix where he spoke on what teams can do to help guide players to succeed off the field.

“These young men are some of the best in the world, they are elite,” Fitzgerald said Monday. “And you are some of the most talented leaders and business men and women in the world. You are also elite. [Young players] know how to succeed on the football field, [owners] know how to succeed at life.

“[Owners] know what it takes to succeed off the field, and [young players] need that wisdom and leadership and encouragement that you have to offer.”

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