Larry Fitzgerald grew up reading about football, but now he's concerned that the kids on his lawn don't quite appreciate football history with the same reverence that he does.
The son of a sports writer, Fitzgerald constantly read media guides that his father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr., brought home. The younger Fitzgerald was at the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, last weekend, and even though he very well could become one of their peers someday, it doesn't stop him from being in awe of his predecessors.
"I know all the players who have come before me and have a great respect for them," Fitzgerald told ESPN. "I don't know if the younger generation really knows or cares that much. It's a completely different generation. You can take a young guy in there, they probably wouldn't know 70 percent of the guys through there. I knew everybody from sight."
Fitzgerald has always appreciated the game's greatest players, and it's entirely possible that he'll be recognized among them. However, Fitzgerald clearly doesn't believe that his career would be possible without those before him.
His uniqueness as a football scholar isn't lost on him.
"That's just how I am, though," he admitted. "My appreciation might be a little different than most."
For someone that's had the career he's had, that appreciation has clearly taken the 33-year-old Fitzgerald a long way. He ranks third all-time with 1,125 receptions, only behind Jerry Rice and Tony Gonzalez. Although he is still 200 catches behind Gonzalez, he has broken 100 receptions his last two seasons. With that in mind, second all-time may be a longshot for Fitzgerald, but it certainly isn't out of the question.
