Larry Fitzgerald Sr., a decorated Minnesota sports journalist and the first reporter to cover their son in a Super Bowl, died Monday, according to a statement from his son, Marcus Fitzgerald. He was 71.
“A devoted father, husband, grandfather, and a true pioneer in the Minnesota broadcasting community, he spent his life pouring into the people and the city he loved so much,” said a statement from the Fitzgerald family on X. “He left us peacefully this afternoon, surrounded by his family and the people who loved him most.”
Fitzgerald Sr.’s cause of death was not included in the post. His son, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., is set for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Aug. 8.
It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our father, Larry Fitzgerald Sr. A devoted father, husband, grandfather, and a true pioneer in the Minnesota broadcasting community, he spent his life pouring into the people and the city he loved so much.
He left us… pic.twitter.com/NozYgLgwYK
— Marcus R. Fitzgerald (@ProfessorMFitz) June 1, 2026
A Chicago native and former college football player, Fitzgerald spent more than 40 years covering Minnesota sports, debuting on Black community radio station KMOJ-FM in 1978. He was a constant presence in Twin Cities newspapers and on local sports radio, and the NCAA honored him in 2019 with its Living Legend Legacy Award. Most recently, Fitzgerald wrote columns for the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, covering sports and community issues from the early 1980s through 2021.
“His relationship with the community was unsurpassed by any other journalist because he was a strong voice. … I think he was kind of like our community sports authority,” said Tracey Williams-Dillard, the Spokesman-Recorder’s CEO and publisher, in an interview with The Athletic. ” … He’ll be greatly missed in the sports world and just in the community in general.”
Fitzgerald rose to national prominence in the lead-up to Super Bowl XLIII, between his wide receiver son’s Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009. The event made Fitzgerald the first American journalist to cover his child’s performance in a Super Bowl, which he broadcast live for SEN International Australian Radio.
“I won’t cheer,” Fitzgerald told ESPN before the game. “I’m going to stay objective. I’ve come too far to suddenly show up in the press box with pompoms. But if you could put a monitor on my insides, you’d find a whole fan club in there.”
The younger Fitzgerald was 25 at the time, five years into an NFL career that would see him set league records for most receptions with a single team (1,432), most single postseason receiving yards (546) and most receiving touchdowns in a single postseason (7). A 2008 first-team All-Pro and 11-time Pro Bowler, Fitzgerald ranks second in career receiving yards with 17,492, behind only Jerry Rice.
Super Bowl XLIII was one of 40 Super Bowls that Fitzgerald Sr. covered during his career. In a profile that longtime friend Michael Wilbon penned for The Washington Post ahead of the game, Fitzgerald recalled his son asking him about retirement. The idea was foreign to him.
“He asks me sometimes, ‘Why are you still doing this?’” Fitzgerald Sr. said, “And I tell him: ‘Because I love it, because I built it and survived doing it. Because this is what I do.’”
Statement from the Minnesota Vikings on the passing of Larry Fitzgerald Sr. pic.twitter.com/jWyONFWyGk
— Minnesota Vikings (@Vikings) June 1, 2026
Fitzgerald Sr. lost his wife of 24 years, Carol Fitzgerald, to breast cancer in April 2003. Later that year, he founded the Carol Fitzgerald Memorial Fund in her honor to raise money for breast cancer and HIV research, as well as urban education work.
Williams-Dillard recalled decades of editing Fitzgerald, building the sort of love-hate professional bond any writer-editor pair develops over time. Fitzgerald was passionate about his work, sometimes fiery over tweaks to his writing. But Carol was a constant who kept her husband, a nice guy whose “growl was harder than his bite,” grounded.
“I’d be trying to make suggestions or corrections, and he just got so frustrated with me, and he’d go home and be just as mad, ready to quit,” Williams-Dillard said. “I would remember Carol saying, ‘Larry, you need to calm down. Tracey was right. You’re wrong. You need to go back up there and go back to work and swallow your pride.’ And he, sure enough, would come back to work and just keep writing.
“He was a tough guy out on the streets. But Carol ruled the roost.”
— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) June 2, 2026
Fitzgerald shared a close bond with both of his sons, often bringing them to the Spokesman-Recorder newsroom. He was a loving, proud father who was unafraid to speak up when he felt Fitzgerald Jr. wasn’t being used to his full potential. He publicly called out the Cardinals’ coaching staff in 2014 after his son went untargeted through three quarters of a game for the first time in his career, leaving Fitzgerald Jr. to cool things off publicly.
The younger Fitzgerald got his revenge a few years later in 2019, when his father’s phone began to ring during a locker-room scrum interview.
“Can we get some professionalism here, please?” he chirped at his dad, stone-faced while his namesake smirked.
Fitzgerald Jr. retired from the NFL after the 2020 season.
“I get emotional because I raised this kid and taught him. And he listened, and he’s learned. He has gotten himself to be someone,” Fitzgerald Sr. said in 2018, while accepting a community award in Arizona on his son’s behalf. “And he is doing more. That means a lot to a father.”