TEMPE, Ariz. -- For everything Randy Moss has done for Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald, this is how Fitzgerald repays him: passing him on the NFL’s all-time receiving yards list.
Fitzgerald needs 26 yards Sunday against the Tennessee Titans to leap past Moss into third place in the record books. But Fitzgerald won’t just be bypassing another receiving legend who’s also a future Hall of Famer.
He’ll be moving ahead of one of his mentors.
“I love Randy,” Fitzgerald said. “He taught me this game. I grew up immortalizing him, watching him, trying to emulate what he was doing every single day and I remember him supporting me in high school, coming to my practices, and giving me cleats and gloves, letting me use his car for prom, taking care of me after I washed his cars, letting me come to the house and play basketball.”
Wait, what? Moss let Fitzgerald use his car for the prom?
While growing up in Minneapolis and starring at the Academy of Holy Angels in high school, Fitzgerald was a ball boy for the Minnesota Vikings in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Moss shined in the NFL alongside fellow receiver Cris Carter. Fitzgerald worked the sidelines during games, helped in practice and, apparently, did odd jobs for the players. Moss had one form of payment, Fitzgerald said.
“Straight cash, homie,” Fitzgerald said. “Always. Randy only paid in cash. I don’t think he ever wrote a check.”
In return, Fitzgerald ran routes with the receivers during practice and had his own Vikings cheering section -- at his games.
“On Friday home games, they would be there: Chris Walsh, Jake Reed, Cris Carter, Eddie McDaniel, John Randle, Todd Steussie, Korey Stringer would come all the time, Dwayne Rudd, Robert Griffith, Orlando Thomas, Moe Williams.
“You have no idea what kind of confidence that would instill in you.”
Yet even with all of Fitzgerald’s famous friends, Fitzgerald and Moss grew close.
Moss often would give Fitzgerald his cleats since they were both size 14. He even threw a Jordan warmup his way once.
Fitzgerald and Moss’ friendship was strong enough to withstand the question.
Fitzgerald knew Moss had a Range Rover and a blue BMW 740, which Moss drove often. That was the car that caught Fitzgerald’s eye. So when prom came around, Fitzgerald did it. He asked to borrow Moss’ car.
“I said, ‘Randy, hey man, listen, I was curious if you weren’t busy, I’d love to drive the BMW. ... Just got my license last week,’” Fitzgerald said, reproducing the reticence he had when approaching Moss.
Moss, well, said yes.
“I brought it back without a scratch,” Fitzgerald said.
That good deed encapsulated who Moss was, Fitzgerald said.
“It was cool,” Fitzgerald said. “Randy’s one of them dudes that he would honestly give you the shirt off his back. He would never do a lot of stuff for fanfare, but Randy did so much for kids in Minneapolis, from going to visit homeless shelters to schools. He never wanted cameras around, he never wanted attention. [He’d help] teammates that were in need.
“He was just that kind of guy. He always did for others. I saw that just being a kid around him.”
And now Fitzgerald is about to pass Moss in the record books.
Moss current sits third with 15,292 yards. Fitzgerald is fourth with 15,267. It may take a quarter, a half or just a play for Fitzgerald to eclipse one of his childhood idols. And that, to Fitzgerald, is a memory in itself.
“To look up to somebody like that for so long and respect him and love the person that he is, it really means a lot,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s humbling.”