Classy Larry Fitzgerald Finally Catches a Jerry Rice Record
Since unrestricted free agency arrived in the NFL in 1993, rare indeed has been the player who has been associated with one team for his whole career.
Even rarer is the player in such a category who earned his reputation that way who isn’t a quarterback.
Think of the players in the past 25 years who have played long, Hall of Fame-caliber careers with one team; you probably thought of guys like Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Eli Manning.
Well, one non-quarterback stands out, and he just broke a record belonging to one of the greatest NFL players of all time and an iconic part of San Francisco 49ers history.
Larry Fitzgerald, with 5:48 to go in the third quarter of the Arizona Cardinals’ 17-3 loss to the Detroit Lions, caught his 1,282nd career pass, breaking the record Jerry Rice set with the 49ers for most catches by a player with one team in NFL history.
An inside look at @LarryFitzgerald‘s record-breaking catch. pic.twitter.com/4kmh1kudjN
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) December 10, 2018
Rice did extend his career with the Raiders and Seahawks and still holds the all-time record for total catches with 1,549.
That mark is probably beyond Fitzgerald’s grasp. He’s 35 and in his 15th season with the Cardinals, as well as the final year of his current contract.
The Cardinals are 3-10, a far cry from the squad that came up four points short of a championship in Super Bowl XLIII against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009. He signed a one-year deal for this season and most people in Arizona believe he’s ready to retire.
Fitzgerald, of course, could leave in free agency to win the ring he never got with a perennially underachieving Cardinals team.
New England, for example, is well known for grabbing talent off the scrap heap, and Fitzgerald could join them the way Randy Moss once did.
Fitzgerald himself played his cards close to the vest, although he’s previously indicated he has no desire to finish his career with another team.
“It’s a two-way street in this business,” Fitzgerald said. “You have to want to stay in a place and the organization, team, coaches have to want you to be here. It’s a two-way street. I’m appreciative of the Bidwill family for giving me the shot to continue to play and call Arizona home. It means a lot to me.”
Fitzgerald has been down this road before; he has played through four contracts in Arizona, and each time, rumors have flown about whether he’d return to the team or try his luck somewhere else.
And in each of the previous three cases, Fitzgerald hasn’t said a word about his intentions until after the season was over.
This time should be no different, so even though Arizona’s involvement in this year’s playoffs will be limited to watching them on television, we won’t hear from Fitzgerald or the team until after the Super Bowl.
Still, with Fitzgerald just 283 catches away from the all-time record, it’d be a shame if he didn’t hook on somewhere to try and finish the job.
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