We aren’t a football blog– we’re a Penn State blog. That’s why this story about Larry Fitzgerald fascinated us.

Larry Fitzgerald is a wide receiver for the Arizona Cardinals, who are facing the Pittsburgh Steelers this Sunday in a little competition called the Super Bowl.

Fitzgerald went to the University of Pittsburgh (kind of ironic that he’s facing the Steelers, isn’t it?).

In an interview this week in Tampa, Fitzgerald shared the story of why his plans for being a Penn State football player were altered.

“I was always a big Penn State fan as a child. I always liked the Big Ten being from Minnesota, but the Gophers were terrible when I was trowing up. I played linebacker too and I always liked LaVar Arrington and Brandon Short and I always wanted to be a Penn State linebacker.”

I understand his crush on LaVar Arrington– he’s the only player I knew in grade school, and that was enough to fool my friends into thinking I wasn’t a total football n00b.
What happened?

“On our way driving to visit Penn State it was raining really hard and the visibility wasn’t good enough so we spent the night in Pittsburgh,” Fitzgerald said. “My high school coach told me that Tony Dorsett and Dan Marino and Mike Ditka went there and that there were a lot of great players who went there. So we went over to their facility and the coaches didn’t know we were coming. I met the coaches and we gave them my tape and that was how the relationship started.”

Pittsburgh invited him to play wide reciever for their team, and whipped him into fine football shape. Kind of wish he had come here– he looks like a cool dude.