He now uses his success and his celebrity to remind others of this. Today, if I could go back and talk to that brash young 20-year-old, I would remind him that the pursuit of personal success should never come at the expense of healthy relationships with the people we love most.” Our own little lives in the clouds As a result, I don’t think I was as present, physically and emotionally, for my mother as I should have been. I didn’t know how to cope with this thing that I couldn’t see and couldn’t get a handle on. ![]() He said in part, “When her diagnosis came, the timing could not have been worse. He wrote a guest essay for The Athletic last year lamenting his lack of maturity at the time, and the need to appreciate what is most valuable in our lives. It makes you appreciate the health that you have.”Īs a young man Fitzgerald’s mother died of breast cancer. When you’re sitting at home and you’re watching how many people are dying every day, you really kind of reevaluate things. He said afterward, “I got my estate planning all done up again, I revised my will. ![]() Last November he contracted COVID-19, losing his senses of smell and taste and dealing with other symptoms, all while in isolation. In just about anyone else, sports fans might have cause to sneer at the privilege, to condemn what appears to be a sense of entitlement. That’s how we felt as an organization and so that’s where it’s at.” No sense of entitlement Coach Kliff Kingsbury said, “ We’ve left it in his court. He will soon turn 38, has all the money he and anyone he loves will ever need, and has many interests, business and personal, outside of football.Īs for the team, they patiently wait for his decision. You get a true appreciation for what you have.”Įvery year at about this time, when NFL training camps have begun, fans in Phoenix are left to wonder if Fitzgerald is coming back for another season. It’s like these people here gave something to me. They were asked to speak a bit to the crowd, then spent time afterwards just talking to folks.īefore he left I chatted a bit with Fitzgerald, who, among other things, told me, “You know, you definitely get more from something like this than you could ever give. He arrived with Jimmy Walker, founder of the Celebrity Fight Night Foundation in Phoenix and a long-time volunteer at St. ![]() Still others, untethered, drifting in and out of line to take in the scene.Īnd the volunteers, the angels, some manning the cafeteria-style serving areas, some moving among the visitors, looking to see is anyone needed special assistance.Īnd in walked Fitzgerald. Others being held by moms or older brothers and sisters. Whole families with children, some of them on the shoulders of their fathers. The line waiting for breakfast to be served was long. The angels.Īlthough, I didn’t expect one of them to be Arizona Cardinals’ great Larry Fitzgerald. Vincent de Paul dining room on West Jackson in Phoenix. I found them there, of course. It begins some years back, on one of those mornings when I needed to be reminded that angels exist. ME: Okay, I will, but you’re not going to like it. READER: I’m a fan of the Cardinals and Fitz but every year some of these rich, privileged players (I've been watching to Aaron Rodgers drama too) string along the teams and the fans about whether they’ll play that year, stuff that hardworking regular people could never get away with.
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