Larry Fitzgerald Sr. was in Seattle on Sunday and got to witness first-hand the drubbing his son’s team took at the hands of the Seattle Seahawks. The Cardinals season hit a new low as they turned the ball over eight times in a 58-0 loss to the Seahawks.
His son made just one catch for two yards despite being targeted 11 times by Arizona quarterbacks John Skelton and Ryan Lindley. Three passes intended for Fitzgerald were picked off by the Seahawks.
After the game, the elder Fitzgerald took to twitter in criticizing the Cardinals.
“Pathetic performance by Arizona Cardinals,” Fitzgerald Sr. wrote. “Cardinals loss 9 straight can’t do anything right.”
During his weekly Monday night football pregame show appearance with Jim Gray of Dial Global Sports, Fitzgerald responded to the frustrations expressed by his father the night before.
“I’m in a unique situation with my father being a media member,” Fitzgerald said. “He’s making an observation based on what he sees and what he feels and that’s his opinion. I don’t share in those same feelings and that’s where I stand on that.”
Even if he does feel the same as his dad, Fitzgerald is not the kind of player that feels the need to voice his frustrations publicly. He’s always said the right things about his situation regardless of how he may actually feel. Fitzgerald dismissed any notion that he’s wasting away playing for the moribund Cardinals.
“I enjoy playing for the Arizona Cardinals and I want to continue to play here and try to win,” Fitzgerald said.
Fitzgerald said he didn’t understand why Cardinals head coach Ken Whisenhunt felt the need to apologize for the team’s performance against the Seahawks. Fitzgerald said his coach wasn’t playing in the game, it was the players that didn’t get the job done. He also shot down the thought the Cardinals have quit.
“Never. We’re professionals. That will never happen,” Fitzgerald said. “We’re going to continue to play. We’re going to continue to practice. We’re going to continue to prepare every week like we would if we had won nine games in a row. That’s not going to change. We’re not going to quit.”
Team president Michael Bidwell said Monday that Whisenhunt will finish the season as the Cardinals head coach but it’s hard to fathom a team as listless as the one that played in Seattle Sunday hasn’t quit on this season. If that’s the case, it’s tough to imagine Whisenhunt keeping his job in 2013.