Larry Fitzgerald Moves To Second All-Time In Receptions

[Big Red]

Larry Fitzgerald shared an embrace with Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice before Sunday’s 27-10 loss to the Seahawks.


A few hours later, the Cardinals’ star receiver moved near him again, but this time, it was on the NFL leaderboard.


A bubble screen reception in the fourth quarter gave Fitzgerald 1,326 catches in his career, which passed Tony Gonzalez for the second-most in NFL history. Rice leads the way with 1,549 catches in his illustrious career.


Fitzgerald wasn’t in the mood to talk about his individual accomplishment after a loss that dropped the Cardinals to 0-3-1, but acknowledged that it was nice to have Rice in the building for it.


“Jerry’s been kind to me, long before today,” Fitzgerald said. “He used to come up and train with me in the offseason, teaching us all the nuances of route-running and pass-catching. I have a great relationship with him. I talk to him quite often about a lot of stuff that’s not even related to football. Having him there, it’s always great. He’s been a wonderful mentor for a long time.”


Fitzgerald finished the game with five catches for 47 yards. Even though the outcome had been decided when he surpassed Gonzalez, the crowd still cheered loudly when Fitzgerald made the catch and serenaded him with the ‘Lar-ry’ chant that has reverberated around State Farm Stadium so often.


Fitzgerald is also second all-time in receiving yards with 16,579, but that’s still more than 6,000 behind Rice for No. 1 in history. Rice penned an Instagram post before the game calling Fitzgerald the greatest of all time. When that was relayed to Fitzgerald, he chuckled quietly.


“That’s pretty special to get that from the actual, real GOAT,” Fitzgerald said. “I guess when you are the GOAT, it’s easy to call somebody else the GOAT, right? But he’s the best of all-time. I got a real nice message earlier from Tony Gonzalez, too, who is arguably the best tight end to ever play the game. To have your name mentioned with those guys, it’s truly an honor.”

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