Larry Fitzgerald says he was fined $23,000 for block against Green Bay

There weren’t a lot of penalties called on the Arizona Cardinals during their 26-20 overtime win over the Green Bay Packers last Saturday night.

In fact, the Cardinals were flagged only three times for 26 yards in the victory that pushed them into the NFC Championship Game against Carolina Sunday.

One of them was a 15-yard personal foul call on wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald in the third quarter for what was called a blindside block against Green Bay safety Morgan Burnett on an end-around run by John Brown. What would have been 2nd-and-goal at the Packers’ 3-yard line turned into a 1st-and-goal at the 20. The Cardinals had to settle for a Chandler Catanzaro field goal that pulled Arizona to within three points.

A guest on the Big Red Rage with Calais Campbell on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM Thursday night, Fitzgerald got praise from his teammate about the block he threw.

“That block you threw against Green Bay, where they threw a flag on you, I was so hyped,” Campbell said.

Fitzgerald responded immediately.

“Well then help me pay my fine, man,” he said. “Twenty-three thousand dollars, man. Help me out.”

Arizona Sports’ Paul Calvisi was incredulous about the fine, pointing out that Fitzgerald isn’t a repeat offender.

“No, it hurt me,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald’s head coach, Bruce Arians, didn’t agree with the call on his receiver.

“I thought it was a clean block,” Arians told Bickley and Marotta Monday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “In my opinion, it’s still a clean block. I didn’t think he hit (Burnett) in the head, I thought he hit him in the chest, but he slid up and the guy’s ricocheted back and it looked like he hit him in the head.

“I’ll still argue it was a clean block.”

The league disagreed, of course, and it will cost Fitzgerald.

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