Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald, three days after his brother Marcus became unhinged, Twitter style, has addressed the appearance that a rift exists between Larry and Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.
“I kind of chuckled about it because everybody in here knows me and Kurt’s relationship and that is never going to be affected by anything outlandish like that,” Fitzgerald said, per ESPN.com’s Mike Sando. “Anybody that knows me and Kurt knows that is my closest friend on the team. He has always been there for me and I am always going to be there for him, long after I can’t run and catch anymore and long after he can’t throw anymore. I am still going to be his friend, he is still going to be my friend and that is the way our relationship is always going to be.”
Fitzgerald also said he was “disappointed” by the comments from Marcus, and that Marcus will be working at Warner’s next football camp, apparently as a penance for calling Kurt an “old ass man” and saying that Kurt plays like he is 80 years old. “He is going to be taking out the garbage and whatever else Kurt needs,” Larry F. said. (Changing Kurt’s diaper?)
Larry also denied that he is frustrated by the lack of balls thrown in his direction. (He is averaging five catches for 52.5 yards and one touchdown per game.) “I am OK, honestly. I am really not frustrated. It is early in the season, we are only in Week Three and I am going to get my opportunities. I know that and I just have to make sure mentally and physically that I am prepared when those opportunities come, and play the way I am able to play.”
Though Sando and others think that the issue has been overblown, two realities linger for us.
First, Marcus surely has been influenced by communications with his big brother, and during that Twitter rant there’s a good chance some of the opinions Marcus developed via those discussions bubbled to the surface. Second, and more importantly, the Twitter entries from Marcus Fitzgerald included clear indications that Larry had sent a halftime text message expressing frustration, and that Larry had indicated he was “pissed” during a postgame phone call to Marcus.
It’s unclear whether Larry was specifically confronted with these facts when he spoke to the media on Wednesday. And while we don’t expect reporters to constantly treat media access like open-courtroom cross-examination, we also advise against accepting self-serving explanations at face value -- especially where there are indications to the contrary that have not yet been fully explored.