Larry Fitzgerald gave the commencement speech at the University of Pittsburgh on Sunday and also received a Doctorate of Letters.
Appropriate for one of the Arizona Cardinals’ all-time great players and a model citizen, who might be less than two years away from being voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Fitzgerald is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2026. He deserves a first-ballot induction after a stellar 17-year career with the Cardinals. The wide receiver made the Pro Bowl 11 times and was an All-Pro three times.
“I try not to think too much about it,” Fitzgerald said about the Hall of Fame, as reported by the Trib Live. “It’s a very subjective process. I feel like I’ve done all I could to put myself in position. It’s up to other people to make that call. But if they do, I’ll answer and be very happy.”
Larry Fitzgerald’s dominant NFL career
Fitzgerald played 263 NFL games, all with the Cardinals, who drafted him with the third overall pick of the 2004 draft.
He had 1,432 catches for 17,492 yards and 121 touchdowns. Fitzgerald is second all-time in receiving yards behind the 49ers’ Jerry Rice, who had 22,895. Fitzgerald’s last season was in 2020, when he was 37 years old. He didn’t formally retire from the NFL.
“Football was a great time in my life, and I look back on it fondly,” Fitzgerald told the media in Pittsburgh. “It’s just a few chapters of your life in the grand scheme of things … The game was much bigger than any individual person.”
Fitzgerald played two seasons at Pitt. He had 161 catches for 2,677 yards and 34 touchdowns in two seasons (2002-03). He finished second to Oklahoma quarterback Jason White in 2003 Heisman Trophy voting.
“Your relationships will be your greatest asset in life, the friendships you build, the mentors who will guide you, the people you lift up and those who you allow to lift you in return,” Fitzgerald told the graduating class.
“When I look back on my life, the greatest experiences are teammates who became family, friends who were there in moments of both triumph and loss.”
Fitzgerald’s son, Devin, came to Pitt to watch the speech. Devin is a four-star recruit, according to 247 Sports. He is a 6-foot-2 wide receiver from Brophy Prep in Phoenix, where 2025 Cardinals draft pick Denzel Burke played his first two years in high school.
Devin, who will be a senior in the fall, has offers from UCLA, Arizona, Arizona State, Boston College and Duke.
Fitzgerald said he comes to Pittsburgh several times a year as a board member of Dick’s Sporting Goods, which is located in a Pittsburgh suburb.