GLENDALE, Ariz. — It's emotional saying goodbye to someone that means so much to a community.
I'll admit, watching Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger get a win in his final home game bummed me out. Seeing Big Ben take that victory lap around Heinz Field at the end of 'Monday Night Football,' shaking hands with all of the fans, I couldn't help but think about how Arizona never got to give our legend a proper send-off.
The last shot of Larry Fitzgerald on a football field is him walking off in a hoodie after the Cardinals lost to the Rams in the 2020 season finale at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Fitz didn't play in the game.
Before that, his final catch at State Farm Stadium was a week earlier inside of an empty stadium in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers. There were no cheers, no "Larry! Larry!" chants, no signs and no thank yous.
While this has always been Larry's wish, to ride off into the sunset without any fanfare, he means too much to our state to just fade away.
It's too late for Fitz to get the kind of send-off Kurt Warner got in front of a sold-out State Farm Stadium.
Warner got to take a victory lap around the stadium after his final home game, a thrilling 51-45 overtime playoff win over the Green Bay Packers, in 2010.
And while Fitz has yet to officially announce his retirement, it's not too late for one final curtain call.
If the Cardinals win this weekend and the Rams lose, and the Cardinals get a home playoff game, #11 should lead the Cardinals out of the tunnel on finals time.
Fitz should also sound the big red siren in the endzone.
This would give fans one last chance to chant, "Larry! Larry!"
It would give them one last chance to celebrate a Hall of Fame career and Hall of Fame person.
If you want to pump some juice into the crowd and into the team along with blowing the roof off the building, then have Larry Legend come running out.
The only thing that would energize the crowd even more is if #99, J.J. Watt, followed him out.